Mountains of Israel
36 You, human one, prophesy to Israel’s mountains and say, Hear the Lord’s word, mountains of Israel! 2 The Lord God proclaims: The enemy mocked you and said, “The ancient heights belong to us.” 3 Therefore, prophesy and say, The Lord God proclaims: When the surviving nations pressed in and ravaged you from all around to lay claim to you, you became an object of the people’s slander and derision. 4 Hear the Lord God’s word, mountains of Israel! The Lord God proclaims to the mountains and the hills, the watercourses and the valleys, the desolate ruins and the abandoned cities that were contemptuously looted by the surviving nations all around you.
5 So now, says the Lord God, I will speak in my fiery passion against the surviving nations and against Edom, all those who gleefully and spitefully took my land for themselves as a possession only for plunder.[a] 6 Prophesy concerning Israel’s fertile land, and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys, The Lord God proclaims: Because you endured the ridicule of the nations, my passion and fury lead me to speak. 7 So now the Lord God proclaims: I myself swear that the nations round about you will themselves suffer ridicule. 8 But you, mountains of Israel, will extend your branches and bear your fruit for my people Israel, because they will come home very soon. 9 Look, I’m here for you, and I will turn toward you, and you will be farmed and sown. 10 I will populate you with human beings, the whole house of Israel, all of them. The cities will be inhabited, the ruins rebuilt. 11 When I make people and animals increase on you, they will multiply and be fruitful. I will cause you to be inhabited as you were before. I will do more good for you than in the beginning, and you will know that I am the Lord. 12 I will let people walk through you, my people Israel! They will lay claim to you, you will be their inheritance, and you will no longer deprive them of anything.
13 The Lord God proclaims: Because people say, “You are a devourer of human beings” and “You are depriving your nation,” 14 therefore, you will no longer devour human beings or deprive your nation of anything. This is what the Lord God says. 15 You won’t have to listen anymore to the taunts of the nations or endure the scorn of the peoples. And you will no longer deprive your nation of anything. This is what the Lord God says.
A new heart
16 The Lord’s word came to me: 17 Human one, when the house of Israel lived on their fertile land, they polluted it with their ways and deeds. Their ways before me were polluted like the blood of menstruation, 18 and so I poured out my fury on them for all the blood they had poured out on the land and for all the defilement of their idols. 19 When I scattered them to the nations and dispersed them into other lands, I judged them according to their ways and deeds. 20 But then when they entered the other nations, they degraded my holy name because it was said of them, “These are the Lord’s people, yet they had to leave his land.” 21 So I had compassion on my holy name, which the house of Israel degraded among the nations where they had gone.
22 Therefore, say to the house of Israel, The Lord God proclaims: House of Israel, I’m not acting for your sake but for the sake of my holy name, which you degraded among the nations where you have gone. 23 I will make my great name holy, which was degraded among the nations when you dishonored it among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord. This is what the Lord God says.
When I make myself holy among you in their sight, 24 I will take you from the nations, I will gather you from all the countries, and I will bring you to your own fertile land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be cleansed of all your pollution. I will cleanse you of all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove your stony heart from your body and replace it with a living one, 27 and I will give you my spirit so that you may walk according to my regulations and carefully observe my case laws. 28 Then you will live in the land that I gave to your ancestors, you will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will save you from all your uncleanness, and I will summon the grain and make it grow abundantly so that you won’t endure famine. 30 I will make abundant the orchards’ fruit and the fields’ produce so that you will never again endure the shame of famine among the nations. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways and no-good deeds, and you will feel disgust for yourselves because of your sinful and detestable practices. 32 Not for your sake do I act. This is what the Lord God proclaims. Let that be known to you! Be ashamed and be humiliated because of all your ways, house of Israel.
33 The Lord God proclaims: On the day that I cleanse you of all your guilt, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the ruins will be rebuilt. 34 The desolate land will be farmed, and it won’t be like it was when it seemed a wasteland to all who passed by. 35 They will say, “This land, which was a desolation, has become like the garden of Eden.” And the cities that were ruined, ravaged, and razed are now fortified and inhabited. 36 The surviving nations around you will know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt what was torn down and have planted what was made desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it.
37 The Lord God proclaims: I will also allow the house of Israel to ask me to do this for them: that I increase them like a human flock. 38 Like the holy flock, like the flock of Jerusalem at its festivals, the ruined cities will be filled with a human flock. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 36:5 MT adds to drive it out.