Ezekiel 36

1“As for you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, ‘Mountains of Israel, hear the word of Yahweh.’

2This is what Lord Yahweh says: Because the enemy has said of you, ‘Aha! The age-old high places now belong to us as our possession,’

3therefore prophesy and say, ‘This is what Lord Yahweh says: Because—precisely because—they laid you waste and hounded you on every side, making you the property of the rest of the nations, and you have become a topic on people’s lips and the object of their gossip,

4therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of Lord Yahweh. This is what Lord Yahweh says to the mountains and to the hills, to the stream beds and to the valleys, to the ruins lying waste and to the abandoned cities that have become loot and a laughingstock for the rest of the nations around them.

5Therefore this is what Lord Yahweh says: I swear that in my burning jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations and against Edom, all of it, who with glee in their whole heart and scorn in their soul claimed my land as their own possession, so that its pastureland might become plunder.’

6Therefore prophesy about the soil of Israel, and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the stream beds and to the valleys, ‘This is what Lord Yahweh says: See, in my jealousy and in my fury I have spoken, because you have had to bear the nations’ scorn.

7Therefore this is what Lord Yahweh says: I lift my hand and swear that the nations around you will bear their own scorn.

8But you, mountains of Israel, will send out your branches and bear your fruit for my people Israel, because their coming is near.

9For see, I am on your side; I will turn to you, and you will be worked and sown.

10I will increase the number of people on you, the entire house of Israel, every one of them. The cities will be lived in, and the ruins will be built again.

11I will increase people and animals on you, and they will grow many and bear young. I will make you a place to live in as in your earlier days, and I will treat you better than at the start. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.

12I will lead people over you, my people Israel, and they will take you as their own. You will be their inheritance, and you will never again leave them childless.

13This is what Lord Yahweh says: Because people tell you, “You are a devourer of people, and you have left your nation childless,”

14therefore you will not devour people anymore or make your nation childless anymore, declares Lord Yahweh.

15I will not let you hear the nations’ scorn anymore; you will not carry the reproach of the peoples anymore, and you will not make your nation stumble anymore, declares Lord Yahweh.’”

16The word of Yahweh came to me:

17“Son of man, when the house of Israel was living on their own soil, they made it unclean with their ways and their doings. To me their ways were like a woman’s uncleanness in her time of menstruation.

18So I poured my fury out on them because of the blood they had spilled on the land, and because they had made it unclean with their idols.

19I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered across the lands; I judged them as their ways and their doings deserved.

20Yet wherever they came among the nations, they profaned my holy name, because people said of them, ‘These are Yahweh’s people, and still they had to leave his land.’

21But I cared about my holy name, which the house of Israel profaned among the nations they came to.

22Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what Lord Yahweh says: I am not doing this on your account, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations you came to.

23I will make my great name known as holy—the name profaned among the nations, which you profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am Yahweh, declares Lord Yahweh, when I display my holiness through you in their sight.

24I will take you out of the nations and collect you from every land and bring you back to your own soil.

25I will sprinkle pure water on you, and you will be made clean of all your uncleanness; I will purify you from all your idols.

26I will give you a new heart, and I will set a new spirit within you. I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

27I will put my Spirit within you and make you walk in my statutes, and you will guard my ordinances and do them.

28Then you will settle in the land I gave to your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God.

29I will rescue you from all your uncleanness. I will call out to the grain and make it abound, and I will send no famine against you.

30I will make the trees’ fruit and the field’s yield abound, so that you will no longer have to bear the reproach of famine among the nations.

31Then you will call to mind your wicked ways and your doings that were not good, and you will find yourselves loathsome in your own sight because of your iniquities and your abominations.

32I am not doing this on your account, declares Lord Yahweh; know this well. Be ashamed and disgraced over your ways, house of Israel.

33This is what Lord Yahweh says: When the day comes that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will have people living in the cities again, and the ruins will be built again.

34The land that lay waste will be worked, instead of lying there as a wasteland before the eyes of every passerby.

35People will say, “This very land that lay waste has become like the garden of Eden, and the cities that were in ruins, laid waste, and torn down now stand fortified and full of people.”

36Then the nations still remaining around you will know that I, Yahweh, have built up what was torn down and planted what lay waste. I, Yahweh, have spoken, and I will do it.

37This is what Lord Yahweh says: This too I will let the house of Israel seek from me, and I will do it for them: I will make their people as numerous as a flock.

38Like the sacred flocks, like the flocks of Jerusalem in her festival seasons, so the ruined cities will be full of flocks of people. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’”