Ezekiel 36–37

Blessing on Israel

³⁶And you, mortal, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say: O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord. ²Thus says the Lord God: Because the enemy said of you, “Aha!” and, “The ancient heights have become our possession,”^{* 3}therefore prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord God: Because they made you desolate indeed and crushed you from all sides, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations and an object of gossip and slander among the people,^{* 4}therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, the watercourses and the valleys, the desolate wastes and the deserted towns, which have become a source of plunder and an object of derision to the rest of the nations all around;^{* 5}therefore thus says the Lord God: I am speaking in my hot jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who, with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, took my land as their possession, because of its pasture, to plunder it.^{* 6}Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel and say to the mountains and hills, to the watercourses and valleys: Thus says the Lord God: I am speaking in my jealous wrath because you have suffered the insults of the nations;^{* 7}therefore thus says the Lord God: I swear that the nations that are all around you shall themselves suffer insults.

⁸But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot out your branches and yield your fruit to my people Israel, for they shall soon come home. ⁹See now, I am for you; I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown, ¹⁰and I will multiply your population, the whole house of Israel, all of it; the towns shall be inhabited and the waste places rebuilt,^{* 11}and I will multiply humans and animals upon you. They shall increase and be fruitful, and I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times and will do more good to you than ever before. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.^{* 12}I will lead people upon you—my people Israel—and they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance. No longer shall you bereave them of children.

¹³Thus says the Lord God: Because they say to you, “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, says the Lord God, ¹⁵and no longer will I let you hear the insults of the nations; no longer shall you bear the disgrace of the peoples, and no longer shall you cause your nation to stumble, says the Lord God.^*

The Renewal of Israel

¹⁶The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁷Mortal, when the house of Israel lived on their own soil, they defiled it with their ways and their deeds; their conduct in my sight was like the uncleanness of a menstrual period.^{* 18}So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land and for the idols with which they had defiled it.^{* 19}I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries; in accordance with their conduct and their deeds I judged them.^{* 20}But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that it was said of them, “These are the people of the Lord, yet they had to go out of his land.”^{* 21}But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.^*

²²Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.^{* 23}I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations and which you have profaned among them, and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when through you I display my holiness before their eyes.^{* 24}I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.^{* 25}I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.^{* 26}A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.^{* 27}I will put my spirit within you and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.^{* 28}Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.^{* 29}I will save you from all your uncleannesses, and I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you.^{* 30}I will make the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field abundant, so that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. ³¹Then you shall remember your evil ways and your dealings that were not good, and you shall loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominable deeds.^{* 32}It is not for your sake that I will act, says the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and dismayed for your ways, O house of Israel.^*

³³Thus says the Lord God: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the towns to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. ³⁴The 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 the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined towns are now inhabited and fortified.”^{* 36}Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate; I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it.^*

³⁷Thus says the Lord God: I will also let the house of Israel ask me to do this for them: to multiply their people like sheep. ³⁸Like a consecrated flock, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed festivals, so shall the ruined towns be filled with flocks of people. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.^*

The Valley of Dry Bones

³⁷The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.^{* 2}He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. ³He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”^{* 4}Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath^p to enter you, and you shall live.^{* 6}I will lay sinews on you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin and put breath^q in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”^*

⁷So I prophesied as I had been commanded, and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them, but there was no breath in them. ⁹Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath:^r Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath,^s and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”^{* 10}I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.^*

¹¹Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’^{* 12}Therefore prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O my people, and I will bring you back to the land of Israel.^{* 13}And you shall know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O my people.^{* 14}I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.”^*

The Two Sticks

¹⁵The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁶Mortal, take a stick and write on it, “For Judah and the Israelites associated with it”; then take another stick and write on it, “For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with it”;^{* 17}and join them together into one stick, so that they may become one in your hand. ¹⁸And when your people say to you, “Will you not show us what you mean by these?” ¹⁹say to them, “Thus says the Lord God: I am about to take the stick of Joseph (which is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with it, and I will put the stick of Judah upon it^t and make them one stick, in order that they may be one in my hand.”^{* 20}When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, ²¹then say to them, “Thus says the Lord God: I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone and will gather them from every quarter and bring them to their own land.^{* 22}I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king over them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.^{* 23}They shall never again defile themselves with their idols and their detestable things or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all the apostasies into which they have fallen^u and will cleanse them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.^*

²⁴“My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes.^{* 25}They shall live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your ancestors lived; they and their children and their children’s children shall live there forever, and my servant David shall be their prince forever.^{* 26}I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will bless^v them…