Ezekiel 37:16–24

¹⁶“Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, ‘Belonging to Judah and the Israelites^q associated with him.^r’ Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, ‘Belonging to Joseph (that is, to Ephraim) and all the Israelites associated with him.’ ¹⁷Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand.^s

¹⁸“When your people ask you, ‘Won’t you tell us what you mean by this?’^{t 19}say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph—which is in Ephraim’s hand—and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah’s stick. I will make them into a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.’^{u 20}Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on ²¹and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land.^{v 22}I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel.^w There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms.^{x 23}They will no longer defile^y themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding,^bz and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.^a

²⁴“ ‘My servant David^b will be king^c over them, and they will all have one shepherd.^d They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees.^e