Ezekiel 36:1-15

Mountains of Israel

1 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.
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.

Ezekiel 36:1-15 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 36

This chapter is a prophecy concerning the desolations of the land of Israel, and the causes of them; of the return of the people to it, and the fruitfulness of it; and of spiritual blessings bestowed upon them in the latter day. And first, for the comfort of the people of Israel, it is observed that their enemies that insulted them will suffer the vengeance of God's wrath, particularly the Edomites, Eze 36:1-7, that the land of Israel should again become fruitful, its cities rebuilt, men and beasts be multiplied upon it, and be no more liable to destruction, nor bear any more the reproach of the Heathen, Eze 36:8-15, the causes of its desolation and destruction, the sins of its inhabitants, especially bloodshed, idolatry, and profanation of the name of God, Eze 36:16-20, nevertheless the Lord promises to have mercy on them, and return them to their own land, not for their sakes, but for his own name's sake, Eze 36:21-24, then follow promises of spiritual blessings to them: as purification from all sin by the blood of Christ; regeneration by his Spirit and grace; and evangelical obedience as the fruit of that, Eze 36:25-27, and others of a mixed kind, respecting partly temporal and partly spiritual blessings, Eze 36:28-36, for all which it is expected of the Lord that he should be prayed unto for them; particularly their inhabitation in their own land, and the multiplication of them in it, with which the chapter concludes, Eze 36:37,38.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. MT adds to drive it out.
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