EzekielChapter 36

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¹"And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel. Say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD. ²This is what the Lord GOD says: Because the enemy has said about you, 'Aha! The ancient heights belong to us now!' ³So prophesy and say that this is what the Lord GOD says: Because they made you a wasteland and crushed you from every side, you became the property of the rest of the nations. And their talkers gossiped about you and told lies about you. ⁴So, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, and to the empty ruins and deserted cities. The rest of the nations around you have robbed them and laughed at them. ⁵So this is what the Lord GOD says: In my burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations. I have spoken against all of Edom. With great joy and deep scorn, they took my land as their own, so that they could rob its pastureland. ⁶So prophesy about the land of Israel. Tell the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys, that this is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I have spoken in my burning zeal. I spoke because you have suffered shame from the nations. ⁷So this is what the Lord GOD says: I have raised my hand and made a promise. The nations around you will surely suffer shame of their own. ⁸But you, mountains of Israel, will grow branches and bear fruit for my people Israel. For they will soon come home. ⁹Look, I am on your side. I will turn toward you. You will be plowed and planted. ¹⁰I will make the people on you grow in number. It will be all the people of Israel, every one of them. People will live in the cities, and the ruins will be rebuilt. ¹¹I will fill you with people and animals. They will grow in number and have many young. I will let people live on you as they did long ago. I will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD. ¹²Yes, I will let my people Israel walk on you. They will own you, and you will be their inheritance. You will never again take their children from them. ¹³For this is what the Lord GOD says: Because people say to you, 'You eat up men. You take away your nation's children,' ¹⁴So you will no longer eat up men or take away your nation's children, declares the Lord GOD. ¹⁵I will no longer let the mocking of the nations be heard against you. You will no longer suffer shame from the peoples. You will no longer make your nation stumble, declares the Lord GOD." ¹⁶The word of the LORD came to me again. He said, ¹⁷"Son of man, when the people of Israel lived in their own land, they made it unclean. They did it by the way they lived and the things they did. To me, the way they lived was as unclean as a woman during her monthly period. ¹⁸So I poured out my fury on them. I did it because of the blood they had spilled on the land. I also did it because they had made the land unclean with their idols. ¹⁹I scattered them among the nations. They were spread out through the lands. I judged them by the way they lived and the things they did. ²⁰Everywhere they went among the nations, they dishonored my holy name. For people said about them, 'These are the LORD's people, yet they had to leave his land.' ²¹But I cared about my holy name. The people of Israel had dishonored it among the nations where they had gone. ²²So tell the people of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: People of Israel, I am not going to act for your sake. I will act for my holy name. You have dishonored it among the nations where you went. ²³I will show how holy my great name is. It has been dishonored among the nations. You are the ones who dishonored it among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD. They will know it when I show my holiness in you before their eyes. ²⁴For I will take you out from among the nations. I will gather you from all the countries. I will bring you back to your own land. ²⁵I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will make you clean from all your filth and from all your idols. ²⁶I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit inside you. I will take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷And I will put my Spirit inside you. I will cause you to walk in my laws and to be careful to obey my rules. ²⁸Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God. ²⁹I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful. I will not send a famine on you. ³⁰I will also make the fruit on the trees and the crops in the fields plentiful. Then you will no longer suffer shame among the nations because of famine. ³¹Then you will remember your evil ways and the wicked things you did. You will hate yourselves for your sins and your disgusting practices. ³²I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Lord GOD. I want you to know that. Be ashamed and embarrassed by your ways, people of Israel! ³³This is what the Lord GOD says: On the day I make you clean from all your sins, I will let people live in the cities again. The ruins will be rebuilt. ³⁴The empty land will be farmed again. It will no longer lie empty for everyone passing by to see. ³⁵Then people will say, 'This land that was empty has become like the garden of Eden. The cities were once ruined, empty, and torn down. Now they have strong walls, and people live in them.' ³⁶Then the nations left around you will know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt what was torn down. They will know that I have planted again what was empty. I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it. ³⁷This is what the Lord GOD says: Once again I will listen when the people of Israel ask me. I will do this for them: I will make their people as many as a flock. ³⁸Think of the many flocks brought for sacrifices at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts. In the same way, the ruined cities will be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the LORD."