For the readings of today's mass, go to
https://www.livingwithchrist.ca/images/article_images/pdf/Aug_12_Pages_from_LWC_August2020-lowres-3.pdf
Context, context, context. To better understand today's rather troubling first reading, we need to have some context.
The prophet Ezekiel lived in the 6th century BC, and was one of those from Jerusalem who were deported to Babylon (in modern day Iraq) after the Babylonians, led by King Nebuchadnezzar, conquered Jerusalem in 597 BC. it was in Babylon that Ezekiel received his call to be a prophet of God. His first task was to prepare his fellow Jewish deportees for the final destruction of Jerusalem, which the Jews believed to be inviolable. Hence, the first part of the Book of Ezekiel, which includes today's readings, consists of reproaches for Israel's past and present sins and a prediction of a devastating destruction of the city. In 587 BC, after a 2nd rebellion by those Jews who remained in Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar returned to completely destroy the city, including the Temple built 4 centuries earlier by King Solomon. Thus, Ezekiel's prophecies were vindicated before his unbelieving compatriots.
Thus, we hear in today's reading of the foreshadowing of this city. (please note, this is not a prophecy of the end of the world, like what we read in the Book of Revelation, but the end of Jerusalem).
Interestingly, Nebuchadnezzar is seen by Ezekiel as being an agent of God who will deliver God's wrath on the city, a holy city in which God's teachings and laws were being regularly ignored. This idea would have been a surprise for the Jewish people, that the one true God would use their enemies to bring punishment to them. But for those who had remained true to God, they would be saved, with their task the eventual return to, and rebuilding of Jerusalem 60 years later.