1 “And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say: O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD. 2 This is what the Lord GOD says: Because the enemy has said of you, ‘Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession,’ 3 therefore prophesy and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: Because they have made you desolate and have trampled you on every side, so that you became a possession of the rest of the nations and were taken up in slander by the lips of their talkers, 4 therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the desolate ruins and abandoned cities, which have become a spoil and a mockery to the rest of the nations around you. 5 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Surely in My burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who took My land as their own possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, so that its pastureland became plunder. 6 Therefore, prophesy concerning the land of Israel and tell the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys, that this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, I have spoken in My burning zeal because you have endured the reproach of the nations. 7 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I have sworn with an uplifted hand that surely the nations around you will endure reproach of their own. 8 But you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and bear fruit for My people Israel, for they will soon come home. 9 For behold, I am on your side; I will turn toward you, and you will be tilled and sown. 10 I will multiply the people upon you—the house of Israel in its entirety. The cities will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. 11 I will fill you with people and animals, and they will multiply and be fruitful. I will make you as inhabited as you once were, and I will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD. 12 Yes, I will cause My people Israel to walk upon you; they will possess you, and you will be their inheritance, and you will no longer deprive them of their children. 13 For this is what the Lord GOD says: Because people say to you, ‘You devour men and deprive your nation of its children,’ 14 therefore you will no longer devour men or deprive your nation of its children, declares the Lord GOD. 15 I will no longer allow the taunts of the nations to be heard against you, and you will no longer endure the reproach of the peoples or cause your nation to stumble, declares the Lord GOD.” 16 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 17 “Son of man, when the people of Israel lived in their land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds. Their behavior before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman’s impurity. 18 So I poured out My wrath upon them because of the blood they had shed on the land, and because they had defiled it with their idols. 19 I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered throughout the lands. I judged them according to their ways and deeds. 20 And wherever they went among the nations, they profaned My holy name, because it was said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, yet they had to leave His land.’ 21 But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they had gone. 22 Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: It is not for your sake that I will act, O house of Israel, but for My holy name, which you profaned among the nations to which you went. 23 I will show the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations—the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when I show My holiness in you before their eyes. 24 For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all the countries, and I will bring you back into your own land. 25 I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances. 28 Then you will live in the land that I gave your forefathers; you will be My people, and I will be your God. 29 I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will summon the grain and make it plentiful, and I will not bring famine upon you. 30 I will also make the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field plentiful, so that you will no longer bear reproach among the nations on account of famine. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and abominations. 32 It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD—let it be known to you. Be ashamed and disgraced for your ways, O house of Israel! 33 This is what the Lord GOD says: On the day I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be resettled and the ruins to be rebuilt. 34 The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through. 35 Then they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden. The cities that were once ruined, desolate, and destroyed are now fortified and inhabited.’ 36 Then the nations around you that remain will know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt what was destroyed, and I have replanted what was desolate. I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it. 37 This is what the Lord GOD says: Once again I will hear the plea of the house of Israel and do for them this: I will multiply their people like a flock. 38 Like the numerous flocks for sacrifices at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so the ruined cities will be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”
Ezekiel · Majority Standard Bible
Ezekiel 36 Majority Standard Bible
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)