Ezekiel 36:9-19

9 I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown,
10 and I will cause many people to live on you—yes, all of Israel. The towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.
11 I will increase the number of people and animals living on you, and they will be fruitful and become numerous. I will settle people on you as in the past and will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
12 I will cause people, my people Israel, to live on you. They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance; you will never again deprive them of their children.
13 “ ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because some say to you, “You devour people and deprive your nation of its children,”
14 therefore you will no longer devour people or make your nation childless, declares the Sovereign LORD.
15 No longer will I make you hear the taunts of the nations, and no longer will you suffer the scorn of the peoples or cause your nation to fall, declares the Sovereign LORD.’ ”

Israel’s Restoration Assured

16 Again the word of the LORD came to me:
17 “Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by their conduct and their actions. Their conduct was like a woman’s monthly uncleanness in my sight.
18 So I poured out my wrath on them because they had shed blood in the land and because they had defiled it with their idols.
19 I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered through the countries; I judged them according to their conduct and their actions.

Ezekiel 36:9-19 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.

Cross References 15

  • 1. ver 34-36; Jeremiah 31:27
  • 2. S Isaiah 49:8
  • 3. ver 33; Isaiah 49:17-23; S Jeremiah 30:18
  • 4. S Genesis 1:22
  • 5. S Isaiah 49:19
  • 6. Micah 7:14
  • 7. Leviticus 26:9; Job 42:13; S Jeremiah 31:28; S Ezekiel 16:55; Zechariah 10:8
  • 8. Ezekiel 47:14,22
  • 9. S Numbers 13:32
  • 10. Psalms 89:50-51; Isaiah 54:4; S Ezekiel 34:29
  • 11. S Leviticus 5:2; S Leviticus 12:2
  • 12. Psalms 106:37-38; S Jeremiah 2:7
  • 13. S 2 Chronicles 34:21
  • 14. Deuteronomy 28:64
  • 15. Leviticus 18:24-28; S Ezekiel 7:8; S Ezekiel 24:14; Ezekiel 39:24
Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.