Ezekiel 36–37

God’s Blessing on Israel

36The Lord said, “Mortal man, speak to the mountains of Israel and tell them to listen to the message which I, ²the Sovereign Lord, have for them: Israel’s enemies gloated and said, ‘Now those ancient hills are ours!’

³“Prophesy, then, and announce what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying. When the neighbouring nations captured and plundered the mountains of Israel, all of them insulted Israel. ⁴So now listen to what I, the Sovereign Lord, say to you mountains and hills, to you brooks and valleys, to you places that were left in ruins, and to you deserted cities which were plundered and mocked by all the surrounding nations.

⁵“I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken out in the heat of my anger against the surrounding nations, and especially against Edom. With glee and contempt, they captured my land and took possession of its pastures.

⁶“So prophesy to the land of Israel; tell the mountains, hills, brooks, and valleys what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying in jealous anger because of the way the nations have insulted and humiliated them. ⁷I, the Sovereign Lord, solemnly promise that the surrounding nations will be humiliated. ⁸But on the mountains of Israel the trees will again grow leaves and bear fruit for you, my people Israel. You are going to come home soon. ⁹I am on your side, and I will make sure that your land is ploughed again and that seeds are sown there. ¹⁰I will make your population grow. You will live in the cities and rebuild everything that was left in ruins. ¹¹I will make people and cattle increase in number. There will be more of you than ever before, and you will have many children. I will let you live there as you used to live, and I will make you more prosperous than ever. Then you will know that I am the Lord. ¹²I will bring you, my people Israel, back to live again in the land. It will be your own land, and it will never again let your children starve.

¹³“I, the Sovereign Lord, say: it is true that people say that the land eats people, and that it robs the nation of its children. ¹⁴But from now on it will no longer eat people and rob you of your children. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. ¹⁵The land will no longer have to listen to the nations mocking it or see the peoples sneer at it. The land will no longer rob the nation of its children. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.”

Israel’s New Life

¹⁶The Lord spoke to me. ¹⁷“Mortal man,” he said, “when the Israelites were living in their land, they defiled it by the way they lived and acted. I regarded their behaviour as being as ritually unclean as a woman is during her monthly period.^{h 18}I let them feel the force of my anger because of the murders they had committed in the land and because of the idols by which they had defiled it. ¹⁹I condemned them for the way they lived and acted, and I scattered them through foreign countries. ²⁰Wherever they went, they brought disgrace on my holy name, because people would say, ‘These are the people of the Lord, but they had to leave his land.’ ²¹That made me concerned for my holy name, since the Israelites brought disgrace on it everywhere they went.

²²“Now then, give the Israelites the message that I, the Sovereign Lord, have for them: what I am going to do is not for the sake of you Israelites, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have disgraced in every country where you have gone. ²³When I demonstrate to the nations the holiness of my great name—the name you disgraced among them—then they will know that I am the Lord. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. I will use you to show the nations that I am holy. ²⁴I will take you from every nation and country and bring you back to your own land. ²⁵I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you. ^26*I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart. ^27*I will put my spirit in you and I will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you. ^28*Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God. ²⁹I will save you from everything that defiles you. I will command the corn to be plentiful, so that you will not have any more famines. ³⁰I will increase the yield of your fruit trees and your fields, so that there will be no more famines to disgrace you among the nations. ³¹You will remember your evil conduct and the wrongs that you committed, and you will be disgusted with yourselves because of your sins and your iniquities. ³²Israel, I want you to know that I am not doing all this for your sake. I want you to feel the shame and disgrace of what you are doing. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.”

³³The Sovereign Lord says, “When I make you clean from all your sins, I will let you live in your cities again and let you rebuild the ruins. ³⁴Everyone who used to walk by your fields saw how overgrown and wild they were, but I will let you farm them again. ³⁵Everyone will say how this land, which was once a wilderness, has become like the Garden of Eden, and how the cities which were torn down, looted, and left in ruins, are now inhabited and fortified. ³⁶Then the neighbouring nations that have survived will know that I, the Lord, rebuild ruined cities and replant waste fields. I, the Lord, have promised that I would do this—and I will.”

³⁷The Sovereign Lord says, “I will once again let the Israelites ask me for help, and I will let them increase in numbers like a flock of sheep. ³⁸The cities that are now in ruins will then be as full of people as Jerusalem was once full of the sheep which were offered as sacrifices at a festival. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

The Valley of Dry Bones

37I felt the powerful presence of the Lord, and his spirit took me and set me down in a valley where the ground was covered with bones. ²He led me all round the valley, and I could see that there were very many bones and that they were very dry. ³He said to me, “Mortal man, can these bones come back to life?”

I replied, “Sovereign Lord, only you can answer that!”

⁴He said, “Prophesy to the bones. Tell these dry bones to listen to the word of the Lord. ⁵Tell them that I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying to them: I am going to put breath into you and bring you back to life. ⁶I will give you sinews and muscles, and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you and bring you back to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”

⁷So I prophesied as I had been told. While I was speaking, I heard a rattling noise, and the bones began to join together. ⁸While I watched, the bones were covered with sinews and muscles, and then with skin. But there was no breath in the bodies.

⁹God said to me, “Mortal man, prophesy to the wind.ⁱ Tell the wind that the Sovereign Lord commands it to come from every direction, to breathe into these dead bodies, and to bring them back to life.”

^10*So I prophesied as I had been told. Breath entered the bodies, and they came to life and stood up. There were enough of them to form an army.

¹¹God said to me, “Mortal man, the people of Israel are like these bones. They say that they are dried up, without any hope and with no future. ¹²So prophesy to my people Israel and tell them that I, the Sovereign Lord, am going to open their graves. I am going to take them out and bring them back to the land of Israel. ¹³When I open the graves where my people are buried and bring them out, they will know that I am the Lord. ¹⁴I will put my breath in them, bring them back to life, and let them live in their own land. Then they will know that I am the Lord. I have promised that I would do this—and I will. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Judah and Israel in One Kingdom

¹⁵The Lord spoke to me again. ¹⁶“Mortal man,” he said, “take a wooden stick and write on it the words, ‘The kingdom of Judah’. Then take another stick and write on it the words, ‘The kingdom of Israel’. ¹⁷Then hold the two sticks end to end in your hand so that they look like one stick. ¹⁸When your people ask you to tell them what this means, ¹⁹tell them that I, the Sovereign Lord, am going to take the stick representing Israel and put it with the one that represents Judah. Out of the two I will make one stick and hold it in my hand.

²⁰“Hold in your hand the two sticks and let the people see them. ²¹Then tell them that I, the Sovereign Lord, am going to take all my people out of the nations where they have gone, gather them together, and bring them back to their own land. ²²I will unite them into one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. They will have one king to rule over them, and they will no longer be divided into two nations or split into two kingdoms. ²³They will not defile themselves with disgusting idols any more or corrupt themselves with sin. I will free them from all the ways in which they sin and betray me. I will purify them; they will be my people, and I will be their God. ^24*A king like my servant David will be their king. They will all be united under one ruler and will obey my laws faithfully. ²⁵They will live on the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where their ancestors lived. They will live there for ever, and so will their children and all their descendants. A king like my servant David will rule over them for ever. ²⁶I will make a covenant with them that guarantees their security for ever. I will establish them and increase their population, and put my Temple in their land, where it will stay for ever. ^27*I will live there with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. ²⁸When I place my Temple there to be among them for ever, then the nations will know that I, the Lord, have chosen Israel to be my own people.”