The Land of Israel Will Be Built again

36 “Son of man,* speak to the mountains of Israel for me. Tell the mountains of Israel to listen to the word of the Lord! ²Tell them that the Lord and Master says these things, ‘The enemy said bad things against you. They said: Hurrah! Now the ancient mountains* will be ours!’ ³“So speak to the mountains of Israel for me. Tell them that the Lord and Master says these things, ‘The enemy destroyed your cities and attacked you from every direction. They did this so you would belong to the other nations. Then people talked and whispered about you.’” ⁴So, mountains of Israel, listen to the word of the Lord my Master! The Lord my Master says this to the mountains, hills, streams, valleys, empty ruins, and abandoned cities that have been looted and laughed at by the other nations around them. ⁵The Lord my Master says, “I swear (promise), I will let my strong feelings speak for me! I will let Edom and the other nations feel my anger. Those nations took my land for themselves. They really had a good time when they showed how much they hated this land. They took the land for themselves just so they could destroy it!” ⁶“So, say these things about the land of Israel. Speak to the mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys. Tell them that the Lord and Master says these things, ‘I will let my strong feelings and anger speak for me. Why? Because you had to suffer the insults from those nations.’” ⁷So the Lord my Master says these things, “I am the One making this promise! I swear that the nations around you will have to suffer for those insults. ⁸“But mountains of Israel, you will grow new trees and produce fruit for my people Israel. My people will soon come back. ⁹I am with you. I will help you. People will till your soil. People will plant seeds in you. ¹⁰There will be many, many people living on you. The whole family of Israel—all of them—will live there. The cities will have people living in them. The destroyed places will be built like new. ¹¹I will give you many people and animals. And they will grow and have many children. I will bring people to live on you like in the past. I will make it better for you than before. Then you will know that I am the Lord. ¹²Yes, I will lead many people—my people, Israel—to your land. You will be their property. And you won’t take away their children again.” ¹³The Lord my Master says these things, “Land of Israel, people say bad things to you. They say you destroyed your people. They say you took the children away from your people. ¹⁴But you won’t destroy people any more. You won’t take away their children again.” The Lord my Master said those things. ¹⁵“I won’t let those other nations insult you any more. You won’t be hurt by those people any more. You won’t take the children away from your people again.” The Lord my Master said those things.

The Lord Will Protect His Own Good Name

¹⁶Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, ¹⁷“Son of man,* the family of Israel lived in their own country. But they made that land filthy by the bad things they did. To me, they were like a woman that becomes unclean* because of her monthly time of bleeding. ¹⁸They spilled blood on the ground when they murdered people in that land. They made the land filthy with their idols.* So I showed them how angry I was. ¹⁹I scattered them among the nations and spread them through all the lands. I gave them the punishment they should have for the bad things they did. ²⁰But even in those other nations they ruined my good name. How? Those nations said, ‘These are the Lord’s people, but they left his land. {So there must be something wrong with the Lord!}’ ²¹“The people of Israel ruined my holy name in the places where they went. And I felt sorry for my name. ²²So tell the family of Israel that the Lord and Master says these things, ‘Family of Israel, you ruined my holy name in the places where you went. I am going to do something to stop this. I won’t do it for your sake, Israel. I will do it for my holy name. ²³I will show those nations that my great name is truly holy. You ruined my good name in those nations! But I will show you that I am holy. I will make you respect my name. And then those nations will know that I am the Lord.’” The Lord my Master said those things. ²⁴{God said,} “I will take you out of those nations, gather you together, and bring you back to your own land. ²⁵Then I will sprinkle pure water on you and make you pure. I will wash away all your filth. I will wash away the filth from those nasty idols and make you pure.” ²⁶{God said,} “I will also put a new spirit in you {and change your way of thinking}. I will take out the heart of stone from your body and give you a tender, human heart. ²⁷And I will put my Spirit inside you.* I will change you so you will obey my laws. You will carefully obey my commands. ²⁸Then you will live in the land that I gave to your ancestors.* You will be my people, and I will be your God.” ²⁹{God said,} “Also, I will save you and keep you from becoming unclean.* I will command the grain to grow. I won’t bring a time of hunger against you. ³⁰I will give you large crops of fruit from your trees and the harvest from your fields so you will never again feel the shame of being hungry in a foreign country. ³¹You will remember the bad things you did. You will remember that those things were not good. Then you will hate yourselves because of your sins and the terrible things you did.” ³²The Lord my Master says, “I want you to remember this: I am not doing these things for your good! {I am doing them for my good name!} Family of Israel, you should be ashamed and embarrassed about the way you lived!” ³³The Lord my Master says these things, “On the day that I wash away your sins, I will bring people back to your cities. Those ruined cities will be built again. ³⁴People will again begin to work the land so when other people pass by they won’t see ruins any more. ³⁵They will say, ‘In the past, this land was ruined. But now it is like the garden of Eden. The cities were destroyed. They were ruined and empty. But now they are protected, and there are people living in them.’” ³⁶{God said,} “Then those nations that are still around you will know I am the Lord and that I built those ruined places again. I planted things in this land that was empty. I am the Lord. I said these things, and I will make them happen!” ³⁷The Lord my Master says these things, “I will also let the family of Israel come to me and ask me to do these things for them. I will make them grow and become many, many people. They will be like flocks of sheep. ³⁸During the special festivals, Jerusalem is filled with flocks of sheep and goats that have been made holy. In the same way, the cities and ruined places will be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Son of man This was usually just a way of saying “a person,” or “a human being. But here this is a title for the man, Ezekiel. mountains Literally, “high places”—usually a reference to places of worship. unclean Not pure or not acceptable to God for worship. idols Statues of false gods that people worshiped. I will put my Spirit inside you. Or, “I will make my Spirit live among you.” ancestors Literally, “fathers,” meaning a person’s parents, grandparents, and all the people they are descended from. unclean Not pure or not acceptable to God for worship.

The Vision of the Dry Bones

37 The Lord’s power came on me. The Spirit* of the Lord carried me {out of the city} and put me down in the middle of the valley.* The valley was full of dead men’s bones. ²There were many, many bones lying on the ground in the valley. The Lord made me walk all around among the bones. I saw the bones were very dry. ³Then the Lord my Master said to me, “Son of man,* can these bones come to life?” I answered, “Lord my Master, only you know the answer to that question.” ⁴The Lord my Master said to me. “Speak to those bones for me. Tell those bones, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! ⁵The Lord my Master says these things to you: I will cause breath* to come into you, and you will come to life! ⁶I will put sinews and muscles on you. And I will cover you with skin. Then I will put breath in you, and you will come back to life! Then you will know that I am the Lord and Master.’” ⁷So I spoke to the bones for the Lord, like he said. I was still speaking, when I heard the loud noise. The bones began to rattle, and bone joined together with bone! ⁸There before my eyes, I saw sinew and muscles begin to cover the bones. And skin began to cover them. But {the bodies didn’t move}—there was no breath in them. ⁹Then the Lord my Master said to me, “Speak to the wind* for me. Son of man,* speak to the wind for me. Tell the wind that the Lord and Master says these things: ‘Wind, come from every direction and breathe air into these dead bodies! Breathe into them and they will come to life again!’” ¹⁰So I spoke to the wind for the Lord, like he said. And the breath came into the dead bodies. They came to life and stood up. There were many, many men—they were a very large army! ¹¹Then the Lord my Master said to me, “Son of man,* these bones are like the whole family of Israel. The people of Israel say, ‘Our bones have dried up,* our hope is gone. We have been completely destroyed!’ ¹²So, speak to them for me. Tell them the Lord and Master says these things, ‘My people, I will open your graves and bring you up out of your graves! Then I will bring you to the land of Israel. ¹³My people, I will open your graves and bring you up out of your graves. And then you will then know that I am the Lord. ¹⁴I will put my Spirit* in you and you will come to life again. Then I will lead you back to your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord. You will know that I said these things and that I made them happen.’” The Lord said those things.

Judah and Israel to Become One Again

¹⁵The word of the Lord came to me again. He said, ¹⁶“Son of man,* get one stick and write this message on it: ‘This stick belongs to Judah and his friends,* the people of Israel.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘This stick of Ephraim belongs to Joseph and his friends, the people of Israel.’ ¹⁷Then join those two sticks together. In your hand, they will be one stick. ¹⁸“Your people will ask you to explain what that means. ¹⁹Tell them that the Lord and Master says these things, ‘I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim and his friends, the people of Israel. Then I will put that stick with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick. In my hand, they will become one stick!’ ²⁰“Hold those sticks in your hands in front of you. You wrote those names on those sticks. ²¹Tell the people that the Lord and Master says these things: ‘I will take the people of Israel from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around, and I will bring them into their own land. ²²I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel. One king will be king for all of them. They won’t continue to be two nations. They won’t be divided into two kingdoms any more. ²³And they won’t continue to make themselves filthy with their idols* and horrible statues or with any of their other crimes. But I will save them from all the places where they have sinned. And I will wash them and make them pure. And they will be my people, and I will be their God. ²⁴“‘And my servant David will be the king over them. There will be only one shepherd over all of them. They will live by my rules and obey my laws. They will do the things I tell them. ²⁵They will live on the land that I gave to my servant Jacob. Your ancestors* lived in that place. And my people will live there. They and their children, and their grandchildren will live there forever. And David my servant will be their leader forever. ²⁶And I will make a peace agreement with them. This agreement will continue forever. I agree to give them their land. I agree to make them become many, many people. And I agree to put my holy place among them forever. ²⁷My Holy Tent will be with them. Yes, I will be their God and they will be my people. ²⁸And the other nations will know that I am the Lord. And they will know that I make Israel my special people by putting my holy place there among them forever.’”

Spirit Or “wind.” the valley Possibly Jezreel Valley, a fertile area where many battles were fought. It is often called simply, “The Valley.” Son of man This was usually just a way of saying “a person,” or “a human being.” Here this is a title for the man, Ezekiel. breath Or “wind,” or “a spirit.” wind This could also be translated “breath” or “spirit.” bones … dried up This is a way of saying, “We have lost our strength.” Spirit Or “spirit,” or “wind.” friends This is a word play. The Hebrew word is like the word meaning “joined together.” idols Statues of false gods that people worshiped. ancestors Literally, “fathers,” meaning a person’s parents, grandparents, and all the people they are descended from.