Ezekiel 36–37

Israel to Come Home

36“Human, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say: ‘Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord. ²This is what the Lord God says: The enemy has said about you, “Now the old places to worship gods have become ours.” ’ ³So prophesy and say: ‘This is what the Lord God says: They have made you an empty ruin and have crushed you from all around. So you became a possession of the other nations. People have talked and whispered against you. ⁴So, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. The Lord God speaks to the mountains, hills, ravines, and valleys, to the empty ruins and abandoned cities that have been robbed and laughed at by the other nations. ⁵This is what the Lord God says: I speak in hot anger against the other nations. I speak against the people of Edom, who took my land for themselves with joy and with hate in their hearts. They forced out the people and took their pastureland.’ ⁶So prophesy about the land of Israel and say to the mountains, hills, ravines, and valleys: ‘This is what the Lord God says: I speak in my jealous anger, because you have suffered the insults of the nations. ⁷So this is what the Lord God says: I promise that the nations around you will also have to suffer insults.

⁸“ ‘But you, mountains of Israel, will grow branches and fruit for my people, who will soon come home. ⁹I am concerned about you; I am on your side. You will be plowed, and seed will be planted in you. ¹⁰I will increase the number of people who live on you, all the people of Israel. The cities will have people living in them, and the ruins will be rebuilt. ¹¹I will increase the number of people and animals living on you. They will grow and have many young. You will have people living on you as you did before, and I will make you better off than at the beginning. Then you will know that I am the Lord. ¹²I will cause my people Israel to walk on you and own you, and you will belong to them. You will never again take their children away from them.

¹³“ ‘This is what the Lord God says: People say about you, “You eat people and take children from your nation.” ¹⁴But you will not eat people anymore or take away the children, says the Lord God. ¹⁵I will not make you listen to insults from the nations anymore; you will not suffer shame from them anymore. You will not cause your nation to fall anymore, says the Lord God.’ ”

The Lord Acts for Himself

¹⁶The Lord spoke his word to me again, saying: ¹⁷“Human, when the nation of Israel was living in their own land, they made it unclean by their ways and the things they did. Their ways were like a woman’s uncleanness in her time of monthly bleeding. ¹⁸So I poured out my anger against them, because they murdered in the land and because they made the land unclean with their idols. ¹⁹I scattered them among the nations, and they were spread through the countries. I punished them for how they lived and what they did. ²⁰They dishonored my holy name in the nations where they went. The nations said about them ‘These are the people of the Lord, but they had to leave the land which he gave them.’ ²¹But I had concern for my holy name, which the nation of Israel had dishonored among the nations where they went.

²²“So say to the people of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord God says: Israel, I am going to act, but not for your sake. I will do something to help my holy name, which you have dishonored among the nations where you went. ²³I will prove the holiness of my great name, which has been dishonored among the nations. You have dishonored it among these nations, but the nations will know that I am the Lord when I prove myself holy before their eyes, says the Lord God.

²⁴“ ‘I will take you from the nations and gather you out of all the lands and bring you back into your own land. ²⁵Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and your idols. ²⁶Also, I will teach you to respect me completely, and I will put a new way of thinking inside you. I will take out the stubborn hearts of stone from your bodies, and I will give you obedient hearts of flesh. ²⁷I will put my Spirit inside you and help you live by my rules and carefully obey my laws. ²⁸You will live in the land I gave to your ancestors, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. ²⁹So I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will command the grain to come and grow; I will not allow a time of hunger to hurt you. ³⁰I will increase the harvest of the field so you will never again suffer shame among the nations because of hunger. ³¹Then you will remember your evil ways and actions that were not good, and you will hate yourselves because of your sins and your terrible acts that I hate. ³²I want you to know that I am not going to do this for your sake, says the Lord God. Be ashamed and embarrassed about your ways, Israel.

³³“ ‘This is what the Lord God says: This is what will happen on the day I cleanse you from all your sins: I will cause the cities to have people living in them again, and the destroyed places will be rebuilt. ³⁴The empty land will be plowed so it will no longer be a ruin for everyone who passes by to see. ³⁵They will say, “This land was ruined, but now it has become like the garden of Eden. The cities were destroyed, empty, and ruined, but now they are protected and have people living in them.” ³⁶Then those nations still around you will know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt what was destroyed and have planted what was empty. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it.’

³⁷“This is what the Lord God says: I will let myself be asked by the people of Israel to do this for them again: I will make their people grow in number like a flock. ³⁸They will be as many as the flocks brought to Jerusalem during her holy feasts. Her ruined cities will be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

The Vision of Dry Bones

37I felt the power of the Lord on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and put me down in the middle of a valley. It was full of bones. ²He led me around among the bones, and I saw that there were many bones in the valley and that they were very dry. ³Then he asked me, “Human, can these bones live?”

I answered, “Lord God, only you know.”

⁴He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵This is what the Lord God says to the bones: I will cause breath to enter you so you will come to life. ⁶I will put muscles on you and flesh on you and cover you with skin. Then I will put breath in you so you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”

⁷So I prophesied as I was commanded. While I prophesied, there was a noise and a rattling. The bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸I looked and saw muscles come on the bones, and flesh grew, and skin covered the bones. But there was no breath in them.

⁹Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the wind. ⁿ Prophesy, human, and say to the wind, ‘This is what the Lord God says: Wind, come from the four winds, and breathe on these people who were killed so they can come back to life.’ ” ¹⁰So I prophesied as the Lord commanded me. And the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, a very large army.

¹¹Then he said to me, “Human, these bones are like all the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has gone. We are destroyed.’ ¹²So, prophesy and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves. Then I will bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³My people, you will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and cause you to come up from them. ¹⁴And I will put my Spirit inside you, and you will come to life. Then I will put you in your own land. And you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it, says the Lord.’ ”

Judah and Israel Back Together

¹⁵The Lord spoke his word to me, saying, ¹⁶“Human, take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah and all the Israelites with him.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘The stick of Ephraim, for Joseph and all the Israelites with him.’ ¹⁷Then join them together into one stick so they will be one in your hand.

¹⁸“When your people say to you, ‘Explain to us what you mean by this,’ ¹⁹say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I will take the stick for Joseph and the tribes of Israel with him, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and I will put it with the stick of Judah. I will make them into one stick, and they will be one in my hand.’ ²⁰Hold the sticks on which you wrote these names in your hand so the people can see them. ²¹Say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I am going to take the people of Israel from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them into their own land. ²²I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. One king will rule all of them. They will never again be two nations; they will not be divided into two kingdoms anymore. ²³They will not continue to make themselves unclean by their idols, their statues of gods which I hate, or by their sins. I will save them from all the ways they sin and turn against me, and I will make them clean. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.

²⁴“ ‘My servant David will be their king, and they will all have one shepherd. They will live by my rules and obey my laws. ²⁵They will live on the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land in which your ancestors lived. They will all live on the land forever: they, their children, and their grandchildren. David my servant will be their king forever. ²⁶I will make an agreement of peace with them, an agreement that continues forever. I will put them in their land and make them grow in number. Then I will put my Temple among them forever. ²⁷The place where I live will be with them. I will be their God, and they…