1 “And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say: Mountains of Israel, listen to this message from the Lord. 2 This is what the Lord God says: The enemy said about you, ‘Aha! These old high places now belong to us,’ 3 so you must prophesy and announce that this is what the Lord God says: They have turned you into a wasteland, attacking you from every direction, so that you became the property of other nations and people gossiped about you and slandered you. 4 So now, mountains of Israel, listen to the message from the Lord God. This is what the Lord God says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the deserted ruins and abandoned towns, that the other nations around you have looted and mocked. 5 Yes, this is what the Lord God says: I have spoken passionately against these other nations, and against all the Edomites, who took over my country and made it theirs, happily celebrating as they looted the land and treated me with complete contempt. 6 So prophesy concerning the country of Israel and tell the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys, that this is what the Lord God says: Just watch, for I have spoken passionately about this because you have had to put up with this mockery from other nations. 7 This is what the Lord God says: I hold up my hand and swear that the other nations around you will suffer their own shame. 8 But you, mountains of Israel, will grow trees that will produce fruit for my people Israel, for soon they'll be coming home. 9 Look, I am for you and I will help you. Your land will be plowed, and crops will be sown. 10 You will support the people of Israel as they return and grow in number. People will live in the towns again and rebuild the ruins. 11 The number of your people will grow— they will have many children. The animals too will have many young. You mountains, I will make sure that you are inhabited just as you used to be, and I will make you more prosperous than you were before. Then you will know that I am the Lord. 12 You mountains, I will have my people Israel walk on you again. You will be theirs; you will belong to them, and you will no longer rob your nation of their children. 13 This is what the Lord God says: Because people say to you, ‘You eat people, and rob your nation of their children,’ 14 from now on you won't eat people or rob your nation of their children, declares the Lord God. 15 I'm going to stop these nations insulting you, and you won't have to put up with their taunts any more, or make the nation fall, declares the Lord God.” 16 Another message from Lord came to me, saying, 17 “Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their country, they made it unclean by the way they behaved, by what they did. The way they were behaving in my presence was like the ceremonial uncleanness of a woman's period. 18 So I became angry with them because of murders they committed in the country, and because they made it unclean by worshiping idols. 19 I scattered them among the different nations and countries. I judged them according to the way they had behaved and what they did. 20 But wherever they went among the nations, they ruined my reputation, because people said about them, ‘These are the Lord's people, but they had to leave his country.’ 21 So I had to take care of my reputation for holiness which the people of Israel had ruined among the nations where they'd gone. 22 Tell the people of Israel that this is what the Lord God says: I'm not doing this for you, people of Israel, but for my reputation for holiness, which you ruined among the nations where you went. 23 I will reveal the holy nature and importance of my reputation, which has been ruined among the nations, the reputation you have ruined among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when I reveal my holiness through you as they watch. 24 For I will bring you back from among the nations, gathering you from all the different countries, and I will lead you back into your own country. 25 I will also pour pure water over you, and you will be clean. I will wash you clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new mind and I will put a new spirit inside you. I will take away your stubborn mind and I will give you a loving mind. 27 I will put my Spirit inside you so you will follow my laws and remember to do what I tell you. 28 Then you will live in the country I gave to your forefathers. You will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will save you from everything that makes you unclean. I will make sure you have plenty of grain. I won't send you any famines. 30 I will also make sure you have good harvests from your orchards and fields, so that you won't be mocked by other nations anymore because of famine. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways and terrible things you've done, and you'll hate yourselves for your sins and disgusting actions. 32 You need to realize that I'm not doing this for your sake, declares the Lord God. You should be ashamed and embarrassed for what you've done, people of Israel! 33 This is what the Lord God says: On the day I make you clean from all your sins, I will have you live in your towns again and make sure the ruins are rebuilt. 34 The land that was deserted will be cultivated again instead of looking abandoned to everyone passing by. 35 Then they will say, ‘This deserted land is now like the garden of Eden. The towns that were demolished, abandoned, and destroyed have been restored and strengthened, and people are living in them.’ 36 Then those nations around you that are left will acknowledge that I, the Lord, have rebuilt what was demolished, and that I have replanted what was destroyed. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will carry it out. 37 This is what the Lord God says: I will once again answer the prayers of the people of Israel. This is what I will do for them: I will have them increase in number like a flock. 38 Just like all the many flocks that are brought to Jerusalem to be sacrificed during the religious festivals, so the towns that were once demolished will be full of flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
Ezekiel 36 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (37)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Ezekiel 6:2–3; Jeremiah 22:29; Ezekiel 37:22; Ezekiel 36:4; Ezekiel 36:8
- 2 Deuteronomy 32:13; Ezekiel 25:3; Ezekiel 35:10; Habakkuk 3:19; Psalm 78:69
- 3 Psalm 44:13–14; Lamentations 2:15–16; Jeremiah 18:16; Jeremiah 41:1–18; Ezekiel 13:10
- 4 Deuteronomy 11:11; Ezekiel 34:28; Ezekiel 36:1; Psalm 79:4; Ezekiel 36:6
- 5 Micah 7:8; Ezekiel 36:3; Psalm 83:4–12; Psalm 137:7; Zechariah 1:15
- 6 Psalm 123:3–4; Ezekiel 34:29; Psalm 74:10; Psalm 74:23; Psalm 74:18
- 7 Ezekiel 20:5; Amos 1:1–15; Ezekiel 25:1–17; Jeremiah 25:15–29; Jeremiah 47:1–7
- 8 Isaiah 27:6; Hebrews 10:37; Ezekiel 34:26–29; Isaiah 4:2; Hosea 2:21–23
- 9 Psalm 46:11; Ezekiel 36:34; Hosea 2:21–23; Romans 8:31; Zechariah 8:12
- 10 Ezekiel 36:33; Jeremiah 30:19; Jeremiah 33:12; Isaiah 27:6; Ezekiel 36:37
- 11 Jeremiah 33:12; Jeremiah 23:5–8; Micah 7:14; Ezekiel 37:13; Jeremiah 31:27
- 12 Jeremiah 15:7; Ezekiel 47:14; Obadiah 17–21; Numbers 13:32; Ezekiel 36:13
- 13 Numbers 13:32
- 14 Ezekiel 37:25–28; Isaiah 60:21; Amos 9:15
- 15 Psalm 89:50; Ezekiel 34:29; Isaiah 54:4; Isaiah 60:14; Ezekiel 36:6
- 17 Jeremiah 2:7; Numbers 35:33–34; Micah 2:10; Jeremiah 16:18; Leviticus 15:19–33
- 18 Ezekiel 7:8; 2 Chronicles 34:21; Lamentations 4:11; Lamentations 2:4; Nahum 1:6
- 19 Deuteronomy 28:64; Ezekiel 39:24; Romans 2:6; Ezekiel 18:30; Ezekiel 5:12
- 20 Isaiah 52:5; Romans 2:24; Jeremiah 33:24; Daniel 3:15; Exodus 32:11–13
- 21 Isaiah 48:9; Psalm 74:18; Ezekiel 20:9; Ezekiel 20:22; Isaiah 37:35
- 22 Psalm 106:8; Ezekiel 36:32; Psalm 115:1–2; Deuteronomy 7:7–8; Deuteronomy 9:5–7
- 23 Ezekiel 20:41; Ezekiel 39:7; 1 Peter 2:9; Psalm 46:10; Isaiah 5:16
- 24 Ezekiel 37:21; Ezekiel 34:13; Amos 9:14–15; Psalm 107:2–3; Jeremiah 30:3
- 25 Hebrews 10:22; John 3:5; Jeremiah 33:8; 1 John 1:7; Titus 3:5–6
- 26 Ezekiel 11:19–20; Psalm 51:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Deuteronomy 30:6; John 3:3–5
- 27 Titus 3:3–6; Hebrews 13:21; Ezekiel 39:29; 1 Corinthians 3:16; Jeremiah 31:33
- 28 Jeremiah 31:33; Jeremiah 32:38; Ezekiel 37:27; Ezekiel 11:20; Ezekiel 37:23
- 29 Matthew 1:21; Hosea 2:21–23; John 1:7–9; Romans 11:26; Hosea 14:4
- 30 Ezekiel 34:27; Joel 2:26; Deuteronomy 29:23–28; Leviticus 26:4; Joel 2:17
- 31 Ezekiel 6:9; Nehemiah 9:26–35; Ezekiel 20:43; Job 42:6; Isaiah 6:5
- 32 Deuteronomy 9:5; Ezekiel 36:22; Titus 3:3–6; 2 Timothy 1:9; Daniel 9:18–19
- 33 Isaiah 58:12; Ezekiel 36:10; Jeremiah 33:10; Zechariah 8:7–8; Jeremiah 32:43
- 34 Ezekiel 6:14; Jeremiah 25:9–11; Deuteronomy 29:23–28; 2 Chronicles 36:21
- 35 Isaiah 51:3; Joel 2:3; Jeremiah 33:9; Psalm 58:11; Psalm 64:9
- 36 Matthew 24:35; Ezekiel 17:24; Ezekiel 37:14; Numbers 23:19; Hosea 14:4–9
- 37 Hebrews 10:21–22; 1 John 5:14; Ezekiel 14:3; Zechariah 10:6; Zechariah 10:9
- 38 Acts 2:5–11; John 10:16; 1 Kings 8:63; 2 Chronicles 35:7–19; 2 Chronicles 7:8
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
And those of them who declare that God would make a new covenant with men, not such as that which He made with the fathers at Mount Horeb, and would give to men a new heart and a new spirit; and again, "And remember ye not the things of old: behold, I make new things which shall now arise, and …
… for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it: and I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way, and according to their doings, I judged them." Now it is easy to understand that this applies to that house of Israel of …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
For this cause, though thou shouldest work but the eleventh hour of the day, He gives thy wages entire; and though thou afford no ground of salvation, He saith, "I do it for mine own sake, that my name be not profaned:" though thou shouldest sigh only, though thou shouldest only weep, all these things He quickly catches hold of, …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
He will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be cleansed from all your sin.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
But when the prophet begins to say, "And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord," the reader ought now carefully to observe the way in which the species is overstepped and the genus taken in.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)