Ezekiel 36:3

3 therefore prophesy, and say: Thus says the Lord God: Because they made you desolate indeed, and crushed you from all sides, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you became an object of gossip and slander among the people;

Ezekiel 36:3 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 36:3

Therefore prophesy and say, thus saith the Lord God
Who heard all the enemy said, and knew all their designs and purposes, their schemes and devices: because they have made you desolate;
ravaged their country, destroyed their cities, burnt their temple, and carried them captive, and left the land without men or cattle: and swallowed you up on every side;
all their neighbours, being their enemies, were like ravenous beasts of prey, gaping upon them with their mouths; and, observing the low condition into which they were brought by the king of Babylon, helped forward the destruction; and everyone shared in the spoil and plunder nearest to them they could conveniently come at: that ye might be a possession to the residue of the Heathen;
either to those that were left in the land by the king of Babylon, or to the rest of the Heathen nations round about them: ye are taken up in the lips of talkers,
and are an infamy of the people; reproached, defamed, and made a proverb and byword, by every foul mouthed prating fellow.

Ezekiel 36:3 In-Context

1 And you, mortal, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say: O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord.

2 Thus says the Lord God: Because the enemy said of you, "Aha!" and, "The ancient heights have become our possession,"

3 therefore prophesy, and say: Thus says the Lord God: Because they made you desolate indeed, and crushed you from all sides, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you became an object of gossip and slander among the people;

4 therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, the watercourses and the valleys, the desolate wastes and the deserted towns, which have become a source of plunder and an object of derision to the rest of the nations all around;

5 therefore thus says the Lord God: I am speaking in my hot jealousy against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who, with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, took my land as their possession, because of its pasture, to plunder it.