Ezekiel 36

1 And you, son of man, be a prophet about the mountains of Israel, and say, You mountains of Israel, give ear to the word of the Lord:

You human, prophesy about the mountains in Israel. Say to them, “You mountains in Israel, listen to what Yahweh says.

2 This is what the Lord has said: Because your hater has said against you, Aha! and, The old waste places are our heritage, we have taken them:

This is what Yahweh the Lord says: Your enemies [happily] said about you, ‘Aha! The mountains in Israel that have existed for a long time have become ours!’”

3 For this cause be a prophet, and say, This is what the Lord has said: Because, even because they have been glad over you and put you to shame on every side, because you have become a heritage for the rest of the nations, and you are taken up on the lips of talkers and in the evil talk of the people:

Therefore prophesy about those mountains and say, “This is what Yahweh the Lord declares: [Armies of other nations] attacked you [DOU] from every direction, with the result that your land became abandoned, and people of other nations occupied you, and they spoke maliciously about you and slandered you.

4 For this reason, you mountains of Israel, give ear to the word of the Lord; this is what the Lord has said to the mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys, to the unpeopled wastes and to the towns where no one is living, from which the goods have been taken and which have been put to shame by the rest of the nations who are round about:

Therefore, you mountains in Israel, listen to this message from me. I, Yahweh the Lord, have something to say to the hills and mountains, to the ravines and valleys, to the deserted ruins and towns whose valuable possessions have been taken and their people ridiculed by the people of other nations around them. This is what I, Yahweh the Lord, declare: I am very angry [DOU] with the people of Edom and other nations; they have forced you [Israeli people] to endure them insulting you.

5 For this cause the Lord has said: Truly, in the heat of my bitter feeling I have said things against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who have taken my land as a heritage for themselves with the joy of all their heart, and with bitter envy of soul have made attacks on it:

6 For this cause be a prophet about the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys, This is what the Lord has said: Truly, in my bitter feeling and in my wrath I have said these things, because you have undergone the shame of the nations:

7 For this cause the Lord has said, See, I have taken an oath that the nations which are round about you are themselves to undergo the shame which they have put on you.

Therefore, this is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: Lifting up my arm, I solemnly declare that the people of the nations that are around you will also endure being insulted.

8 But you, O mountains of Israel, will put out your branches and give your fruit to my people Israel; for they are ready to come.

But [I say to] you mountains in Israel that huge crops of fruit will grow on your trees for my Israeli people, because they will soon return home [from Babylonia].

9 For truly I am for you, and I will be turned to you, and you will be ploughed and planted:

I (am concerned about/will take care of) you, and I will bless you. I will [enable farmers to] plow the ground and plant seed there.

10 And I will let your numbers be increased, all the children of Israel, even all of them: and the towns will be peopled and the waste places will have buildings;

I will cause the number of people who live on you mountains and everywhere else in Israel to greatly increase. People will live in the towns and rebuild [houses where there are now only] ruins.

11 Man and beast will be increased in you, and they will have offspring and be fertile: I will make you thickly peopled as you were before, and will do more for you than at the first: and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

I will cause the number of people and domestic animals to increase. People will have many children [IDM, DOU]. I will enable people to live there like they did previously, and I will enable them to prosper like they did before. Then you will know that it is I, Yahweh, [who have the power to do what I say that I will do].

12 Yes, I will have you walked on by the feet of men, even my people Israel; they will have you for a heritage and you will be theirs, and never again will you take their children from them.

I will enable my Israeli people to walk through your mountains. They will own you; you will be their permanent possession. Never again will their children die.

13 This is what the Lord has said: Because they say to you, You, O land, are the destruction of men, causing loss of children to your nation;

This is also what I, Yahweh the Lord, say to you: People say that [only a small amount of food is produced on your mountains, and as a result the people of Israel] die from hunger.

14 For this reason you will no longer take the lives of men and will never again be the cause of loss of children to your nation, says the Lord.

Therefore, I, Yahweh the Lord, declare that no longer will that happen.

15 And I will not let the shaming of the nations come to your ears, and no longer will you be looked down on by the peoples, says the Lord.

No longer will the people of other nations ridicule you; no longer will they laugh at you; no longer will [the armies of] other nations conquer you. [That will surely happen because] I, Yahweh, have declared that it will happen.”

16 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

Yahweh gave me another message. He said,

17 Son of man, when the children of Israel were living in their land, they made it unclean by their way and their acts: their way before me was as when a woman is unclean at the time when she is kept separate.

“You human, when the Israeli people were living in their own land, they (defiled it/caused it to become unacceptable to me) by the things that they did. I considered that their behavior was [disgusting], like [SIM] the rags/cloths that women use during their monthly menstrual periods.

18 So I let loose my wrath on them because of those whom they had violently put to death in the land, and because they had made it unclean with their images:

So I severely punished [MTY] them, because they had murdered [MTY] many people and because they had defiled the land by [worshiping] idols there.

19 And I sent them in flight among the nations and wandering through the countries: I was their judge, rewarding them for their way and their acts.

I caused them to be scattered among many nations [DOU]. I punished [MTY] them like they deserved to be punished because of their very evil behavior [DOU].

20 And when they came among the nations, wherever they went, they made my holy name unclean, when it was said of them, These are the people of the Lord who have gone out from his land.

And wherever they went among those nations, they caused my reputation [MTY] to be disgraced. What has happened is that the people in those countries said about the Israeli people, ‘They belong to Yahweh, but they were forced to leave the land that he [gave to them].’

21 But I had pity for my holy name which the children of Israel had made unclean wherever they went.

But I was concerned about my reputation, which the people of Israel had disgraced among the nations to which they were forced to go.

22 For this cause say to the children of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: I am doing this, not because of you, O children of Israel, but because of my holy name, which you have made unclean among the nations wherever you went.

Therefore, say to the Israeli people, ‘This is what Yahweh the Lord says: You Israeli people, it is not for your sake that I am going to do these things. Instead, it is for the sake of my sacred reputation, which you have disgraced among the nations to which you were forced to go.

23 And I will make holy my great name which has been made unclean among the nations, which you have made unclean among them; and it will be clear to the nations that I am the Lord, says the Lord, when I make myself holy in you before their eyes.

I will show that my reputation is sacred, a reputation which you have disgraced among the nations to which you were forced to go. And when I show the nations that I am holy, the people of those nations will know that I, Yahweh, [have the power to do what I say that I will do].

24 For I will take you out from among the nations, and get you together from all the countries, and take you into your land.

What I will do is to bring you back from those nations. I will gather you from all the countries [to which you were forced to go], and bring you back to your own land.

25 And I will put clean water on you so that you may be clean: from all your unclean ways and from all your images I will make you clean.

[It will be as though] [MET] I will sprinkle clean water on you, and then you will be clean. I will cause you to be cleansed from everything that has defiled you, and I will cause you to stop worshiping idols.

26 And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you: I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh.

I will give you a completely new way of thinking [IDM]. I will enable you to stop being stubborn [IDM], and I will enable you to obey me from your inner beings [IDM].

27 And I will put my spirit in you, causing you to be guided by my rules, and you will keep my orders and do them.

I will put my Spirit within you and enable you to carefully obey all my laws [DOU].

28 So that you may go on living in the land which I gave to your fathers; and you will be to me a people, and I will be to you a God.

You will again live in the land that I gave to your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God.

29 And I will make you free from all your unclean ways: and at my voice the grain will come up and be increased, and I will not let you be short of food.

I will free you from all your disgraceful behavior. I will cause your grain to be plentiful, and I will not send a famine to you again.

30 And I will make the tree give more fruit and the field fuller produce, and no longer will you be shamed among the nations for need of food.

I will cause your fruit trees to produce plenty of fruit and your ground to produce plenty of good crops, with the result that you will no longer be ridiculed by the people of other nations because of your not having enough food.

31 And at the memory of your evil ways and your wrongdoings, you will have bitter hate for yourselves because of your evil-doings and your disgusting ways, O children of Israel.

When that happens, you will think about your previous evil behavior and wicked deeds, and you will (be very displeased with/hate) yourselves for your sins and the detestable things that you did.

32 Not because of you am I doing it, says the Lord; let it be clear to you, and be shamed and made low because of your ways, O children of Israel.

But I, Yahweh the Lord, declare that I want you to know that it is not for your sake that I will do those things. You Israeli people ought to be ashamed of your behavior.

33 This is what the Lord has said: In the day when I make you clean from all your evil-doings I will let the towns be peopled and there will be building on the waste places.

This is also what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: At the time that I forgive you for all the sins that you have committed, I will enable you to live in your towns again and to build houses where there are now only ruins.

34 And the land which was waste will be farmed, in place of being a waste in the eyes of everyone who went by.

People who walk through your country will see that your land is again cultivated instead of (being desolate/having nothing growing in it).

35 And they will say, This land which was waste has become like the garden of Eden; and the towns which were unpeopled and wasted and pulled down are walled and peopled.

They will say, “This land that was ruined has become [very fertile/productive] like [SIM] the garden of Eden! The cities that were piles of ruins, empty and destroyed, now have walls around them, and people live in those cities.”

36 Then the rest of the nations round about you will be certain that I the Lord am the builder of the places which were pulled down and the planter of that which was waste: I the Lord have said it, and I will do it.

When that happens, the people in the nations that are around you that still exist will know that it is I, Yahweh, who have enabled you to rebuild what was destroyed, and to again plant crops in the fields that had nothing growing in them. I, Yahweh, have said [that it will happen], and I will cause it to happen.

37 This is what the Lord has said: The children of Israel will again make prayer to me for this, that I may do it for them; I will make them increased with men like a flock.

This is also what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: Again I will heed what you Israeli people are pleading for me to do for you. I will cause your people to be as numerous as your sheep,

38 Like sheep for the offerings, like the sheep of Jerusalem at her fixed feasts, so the unpeopled towns will be made full of men: and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

as numerous as the flocks of sheep that will be needed for offerings in Jerusalem during your regular festivals. The cities that are now ruined will be filled with people, and then you will know that I, Yahweh the Lord, [have the power to do what I say that I will do].’”