Ezekiel 36

¹ ‘Son of man, prophesy this to the mountains of Israel. Say, “Mountains of Israel, hear the word of Yahweh”.

² The Lord Yahweh says this: Since the enemy has insulted you by saying, “Aha! These eternal heights have now become our domain”,

³ you must prophesy. Say, “The Lord Yahweh says this: Since you have been ravaged and seized on by surrounding countries, and taken over by the rest of the nations, and made the subject of people’s talk and gossip,

⁴ now, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: The Lord Yahweh says this to mountains and hills, to ravines and valleys, to abandoned ruins and the empty plundered cities that have become the laughing-stock of all the surrounding nations.

⁵ Yes, the Lord Yahweh says this: I swear it by the fierceness of my jealousy; I am speaking to the rest of the nations and to the whole of Edom who so exultantly and contemptuously took possession of my country and plundered it.”

⁶ ‘This being so, prophesy this about the land of Israel. Say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, “The Lord Yahweh says this: I am speaking in my jealousy and rage; because you are enduring the insults of the nations,

⁷ very well, the Lord Yahweh says this: I raise my hand and I swear that the nations round you shall have their own insults to bear.

⁸ Mountains of Israel, you will grow branches and bear fruit for my people Israel, who will soon return.

⁹ Yes, I am coming to you, I have turned to you; you will be tilled and sown.

¹⁰ I shall multiply the men who live on you, the whole House of Israel, yes, all. The cities will be lived in again and the ruins rebuilt.

¹¹ I shall multiply the men and animals that live on you; there will be many of them and they will be fertile. I shall repopulate you as you were before; I shall make you more prosperous than you were before, and so you will learn that I am Yahweh.

¹² Thanks to me, men will tread your soil again, my people Israel; they will have you for their own domain, and never again will you rob them of their children.

¹³ The Lord Yahweh says this: Since people have said of you: You are a maneater, you have robbed your nation of its children,

¹⁴ very well, you will eat no more men, never rob your nation of its children again – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks.

¹⁵ I shall never again let you hear the insults of the nations, you will never again have to bear the taunts of the foreigners, you will never again rob the nation of its children – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks.”‘

¹⁶ The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows:

¹⁷ ‘Son of man, the members of the House of Israel used to live in their own land, but they defiled it by their conduct and actions; to me their conduct was as unclean as a woman’s menstruation.

¹⁸ I then discharged my fury at them because of the blood they shed in their land and the idols with which they defiled it.

¹⁹ I scattered them among the nations and dispersed them in foreign countries. I sentenced them as their conduct and actions deserved.

²⁰ And now they have profaned my holy name among the nations where they have gone, so that people say of them, These are the people of Yahweh; they have been exiled from his land”.

²¹ But I have been concerned about my holy name, which the House of Israel has profaned among the nations where they have gone.

²² And so, say to the House of Israel, “The Lord Yahweh says this: I am not doing this for your sake, House of Israel, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone.

²³ I mean to display the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned among them. And the nations will learn that I am Yahweh – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks – when I display my holiness for your sake before their eyes.

²⁴ Then I am going to take you from among the nations and gather you together from all the foreign countries, and bring you home to your own land.

²⁵ I shall pour clean water over you and you will be cleansed; I shall cleanse you of all your defilement and all your idols.

²⁶ I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you; I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh instead.

²⁷ I shall put my spirit in you, and make you keep my laws and sincerely respect my observances.

²⁸ You will live in the land which I gave your ancestors. You shall be my people and I will be your God.

²⁹ I shall rescue you from all your defilement. I shall summon the corn and make it plentiful, and no more bring famines on you.

³⁰ I shall increase the yield of fruit trees and fields so that you will no longer have the ignominy of famine among the nations.

³¹ Then you will remember your evil conduct and actions. You will loathe yourselves for your sins and your filthy practices.

³² I assure you that I am not doing this for your sake – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks. Be ashamed and blush for your conduct, House of Israel.

³³ The Lord Yahweh says this: On the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will repopulate the cities and cause the ruins to be rebuilt.

³⁴ Waste land, once desolate for every passer-by to see, will now be farmed again.

³⁵ Everyone will say: This land, so recently a waste, is now like a garden of Eden, and the ruined cities once abandoned and levelled to the ground are now strongholds with people living in them.

³⁶ And the nations left round you will know that I, Yahweh, have rebuilt what was destroyed and replanted what was ruined. I, Yahweh, have spoken, and I will do it.

³⁷ The Lord Yahweh says this: To grant them further favour, I shall encourage the House of Israel to look for me, and shall increase them like a flock of men,

³⁸ like a flock of sacrificial animals, like the flock in Jerusalem on her solemn feasts. And so your ruined cities will be filled with a human flock. And men will learn that I am Yahweh.”‘