Ezekiel 36:8–38

⁸“But you, O mountains of Israel, ^ashall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my people Israel, for ^bthey will soon come home. ⁹For ^cbehold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and ^dyou shall be tilled and sown. ¹⁰And ^eI will multiply people on you, the whole house of Israel, all of it. ^fThe cities shall be inhabited and the waste places rebuilt. ¹¹And I will multiply on you ^gman and beast, and ^hthey shall multiply and be fruitful. And I will cause you to be inhabited as in ⁱyour former times, and ^jwill do more good to you than ever before. ^kThen you will know that I am the Lord. ¹²I will let people walk on you, even my people Israel. ^lAnd they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no longer ^mbereave them of children. ¹³Thus says the Lord God: Because they say to you, ⁿ‘You devour people, and you bereave your nation of children,’ ¹⁴therefore you shall no longer devour people and no longer bereave your nation of children, declares the Lord God. ¹⁵And I will not let you hear anymore ^ythe reproach of the nations, and you shall no longer bear the disgrace of the peoples and no longer cause your nation to stumble, declares the Lord God.”

The Lord’s Concern for His Holy Name

¹⁶The word of the Lord came to me: ^17o“Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, ^pthey defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were ^qlike the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. ¹⁸So ^rI poured out my wrath upon them ^sfor the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols ^twith which they had defiled it. ^19uI scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. ^vIn accordance with their ways and their deeds I judged them. ²⁰But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, ^wthey profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they had to go out of his land.’ ²¹But I had concern ^xfor my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.

I Will Put My Spirit Within You

²²“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: ^yIt is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, ^wwhich you have profaned among the nations to which you came. ^23zAnd I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. ^aAnd the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. ^24bI will take you ^cfrom the nations and gather you from all the countries and ^dbring you into your own land. ^25eI will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from ^fall your uncleannesses, and ^gfrom all your idols ^hI will cleanse you. ²⁶And I will give you ⁱa new heart, and ⁱa new spirit I will put within you. ⁱAnd I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ^27jAnd I will put my Spirit within you, ⁱand cause you to walk in my statutes and ^kbe careful to obey my rules.^{1 28l}You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and ^myou shall be my people, and I will be your God. ²⁹And ⁿI will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And ^oI will summon the grain and make it abundant and ^play no famine upon you. ^30qI will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, ^othat you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. ³¹Then ^ryou will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. ^32yIt is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.

³³“Thus says the Lord God: On the day that ^sI cleanse you from all your iniquities, ^tI will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. ³⁴And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. ³⁵And they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like ^uthe garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’ ³⁶Then ^vthe nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the Lord; I have rebuilt the ruined places and ^wreplanted that which was desolate. ^xI am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.

³⁷“Thus says the Lord God: This also ^yI will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: ^zto increase their people like ^aa flock. ³⁸Like the flock for sacrifices,^{2 b}like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so ^tshall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. ^cThen they will know that I am the Lord.”