I Will Be Their God; They Shall Be My People

15 The word of the Lord came to me: 16 z“Son of man, atake a stick4 and write on it, ‘For bJudah, and cthe people of Israel associated with him’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For bJoseph (the stick of dEphraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ 17 And ejoin them one to another into one stick, that fthey may become gone in your hand. 18 And when hyour people say to you, i‘Will you not tell us what you mean by these?’ 19 say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am about to take jthe stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the jstick of Judah,5 and kmake them one stick, gthat they may be one in my hand. 20 When the sticks on which you write are in your hand lbefore their eyes, 21 then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, mI will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and mbring them to their own land. 22 And nI will make them one nation in the land, on othe mountains of Israel. And pone king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer qtwo nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. 23 rThey shall not sdefile themselves anymore twith their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But uI will save them from all the backslidings6 in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and vthey shall be my people, and I will be their God.