Ezekiel 36
1 And thou, son of man, prophesy to
the mountains of Israel, and say to the mountains of Israel, Hear ye the word
of the Lord:
2 Thus saith the Lord God; Because the
enemy has said against you, Aha, the old waste places are become a possession
for us: 3 therefore prophesy, and say,
Thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have been dishonoured, and hated by those
round about you, that ye might be a possession to the remainder of the
nations, and ye became a by-word, and a reproach to the nations:
4 therefore, ye mountains of Israel,
hear the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord to the mountains, and to the
hills, and to the streams, and to the valleys, and to
the places that have been made desolate and
destroyed, and to the cities that have been deserted, and have become a spoil
and a trampling to the nations that were left round about;
5 therefore thus saith the Lord;
Verily in the fire of my wrath have I spoken against the rest of the nations,
and against all Idumea, because they have appropriated my land to themselves
for a possession with joy, disregarding the lives
of the inhabitants, to destroy
it by plunder:
6 therefore prophesy concerning the
land of Israel, and say to the mountains, and to the hills, and to the
valleys, and to the forests, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I have spoken in my
jealousy and in my wrath, because ye have borne the reproaches of the heathen:
7 therefore I will lift up my hand
against the nations that are round about you; they shall bear their reproach.
8 But your grapes and your fruits, O
mountains of Israel, shall my people eat; for they are hoping to come.
9 For, behold, I am toward you, and I
will have respect to you, and ye shall be tilled and sown:
10 and I will multiply men upon you,
even all the house of Israel to the end: and the
cities shall be inhabited, and the desolate land shall be built upon.
11 And I will multiply men and cattle
upon you; and I will cause you to dwell as at the beginning, and will treat
you well, as in your former times: and ye shall know
that I am the Lord. 12 And I will
increase men upon you, even my people Israel; and
they shall inherit you, and ye shall be to them for a possession; and ye shall
no more be bereaved of them.
13 Thus saith the Lord God: Because
they said to thee, Thou land devourest men, and hast
been bereaved of thy nation;
14 therefore thou shalt no more
devour men, and thou shalt no more bereave thy nation, saith the Lord God.
15 And there shall no more be heard
against you the reproach of the nations, and ye shall no more bear the
revilings of the peoples, saith the Lord God.
16 And the word of the Lord came to
me, saying, 17 Son of man, the house
of Israel dwelt upon their land, and defiled it by their way, and with their
idols, and with their uncleannesses; and their way was before me like the
uncleanness of a removed woman. 18 So
I poured out my wrath upon them:
19 and I dispersed them among the
nations, and utterly scattered them through the countries: I judged them
according to their way and according to their sin.
20 And they went in among the
nations, among which they went, and they profaned my holy name, while it was
said of them, These are the people of the Lord, and they came forth out of his
land. 21 But I spared them for the
sake of my holy name, which the house of Israel profaned among the nations,
among whom they went.
22 Therefore say to the house of
Israel, Thus saith the Lord; I do not this, O house of Israel, for your sakes,
but because of my holy name, which ye have profaned among the nations, among
whom ye went. 23 And I will sanctify
my great name, which was profaned among the nations, which ye profaned in the
midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, when I am
sanctified among you before their eyes.
24 And I will take you out from the
nations, and will gather you out of all the lands, and will bring you into
your own land: 25 and I will sprinkle
clean water upon you, and ye shall be purged from all your uncleannesses, and
from all your idols, and I will cleanse you.
26 And I will give you a new heart,
and will put a new spirit in you: and I will take away the heart of stone out
of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my Spirit in you,
and will cause you to walk in mine ordinances, and to keep my judgments, and
do them.
28 And ye shall dwell upon the land
which I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be to me a people, and I will be to
you a God. 29 And I will save you
from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and multiply it,
and will not bring famine upon you.
30 And I will multiply the fruit of
the trees, and the produce of the field, that ye may not bear the reproach of
famine among the nations.
31 And ye shall remember your evil
ways, and your practices that were not good, and ye shall be hateful in your
own sight for your transgressions and for your abominations.
32 Not for your sakes do I
this, saith the Lord God,
as it is known to you: be ye ashamed and confounded
for your ways, O house of Israel.
33 Thus saith the Lord God; In the
day wherein I shall cleanse you from all your iniquities I will also cause the
cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be
built upon: 34 and the desolate land
shall be cultivated, whereas it was desolate in the eyes of every one that
passed by. 35 And they shall say,
That desolate land is become like a garden of delight; and the waste and
desolate and ruined cities are inhabited.
36 And the nations, as many as shall
have been left round about you, shall know that I the Lord have built the
ruined cities and planted the waste
lands: I the Lord have spoken, and will do
it.
37 Thus saith the Lord God; Yet
for this will I be sought by the house of Israel, to
establish them; I will multiply them even men as
sheep; 38 as holy sheep, as the sheep
of Jerusalem in her feasts; thus shall the desert cities be full of flocks of
men: and they shall know that I am the Lord.