Ezekiel 36:20–38

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.”