Ezekiel 35; Ezekiel 36; Ezekiel 37; Ezekiel 38

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, face Mount Seir, and prophesy against it.

3 Say to it, The LORD God proclaims: I'm against you, Mount Seir! I will use my power against you. I will make you into a desolate wasteland,

4 I will turn your cities into ruins, and you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

5 Because you nursed an ancient grudge, you handed the Israelites over to the sword in the time of their distress, during their final punishment.

6 So now the LORD God proclaims: As surely as I live, I will prepare you for blood, and blood will pursue you. Because you don't hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you.

7 I will turn Mount Seir into a desolate wasteland, when I cut off from it both passerby and homecomer.

8 I will fill its highlands—your hills and your valleys, and all your ravines—with its slain. Those who are slain by the sword will fall on them.

9 I will turn you into an eternal desolation. Your cities won't be inhabited, and you will know that I am the LORD.

10 You said, "These two nations and these two territories are mine. We will take possession of them even if the LORD is there."

11 Therefore, the LORD God proclaims: As surely as I live, I will act according to the anger and zeal you displayed when you dealt with them so hatefully. When I judge you, I will make myself known to them,

12 and you will know that I am the LORD. I've heard the lies and libels that you uttered against Israel's highlands when you said, "They are laid waste. They've been given to us to consume."

13 With your mouths you exalted yourselves against me and spoke your words against me. I myself heard it!

14 The LORD God proclaims: As the whole world rejoices, I will turn you into a desolation.

15 Just as you rejoiced over the house of Israel's inheritance because it became desolate, so I will deal with you. Mount Seir, you will become a desolation, with all of Edom, all of it. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

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.

16 The LORD's word came to me:

17 Human one, when the house of Israel lived on their fertile land, they polluted it with their ways and deeds. Their ways before me were polluted like the blood of menstruation,

18 and so I poured out my fury on them for all the blood they had poured out on the land and for all the defilement of their idols.

19 When I scattered them to the nations and dispersed them into other lands, I judged them according to their ways and deeds.

20 But then when they entered the other nations, they degraded my holy name because it was said of them, "These are the LORD's people, yet they had to leave his land."

21 So I had compassion on my holy name, which the house of Israel degraded among the nations where they had gone.

22 Therefore, say to the house of Israel, The LORD God proclaims: House of Israel, I'm not acting for your sake but for the sake of my holy name, which you degraded among the nations where you have gone.

23 I will make my great name holy, which was degraded among the nations when you dishonored it among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD. This is what the LORD God says. When I make myself holy among you in their sight,

24 I will take you from the nations, I will gather you from all the countries, and I will bring you to your own fertile land.

25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be cleansed of all your pollution. I will cleanse you of all your idols.

26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove your stony heart from your body and replace it with a living one,

27 and I will give you my spirit so that you may walk according to my regulations and carefully observe my case laws.

28 Then you will live in the land that I gave to your ancestors, you will be my people, and I will be your God.

29 I will save you from all your uncleanness, and I will summon the grain and make it grow abundantly so that you won't endure famine.

30 I will make abundant the orchards' fruit and the fields' produce so that you will never again endure the shame of famine among the nations.

31 Then you will remember your evil ways and no-good deeds, and you will feel disgust for yourselves because of your sinful and detestable practices.

32 Not for your sake do I act. This is what the LORD God proclaims. Let that be known to you! Be ashamed and be humiliated because of all your ways, house of Israel.

33 The LORD God proclaims: On the day that I cleanse you of all your guilt, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the ruins will be rebuilt.

34 The desolate land will be farmed, and it won't be like it was when it seemed a wasteland to all who passed by.

35 They will say, "This land, which was a desolation, has become like the garden of Eden." And the cities that were ruined, ravaged, and razed are now fortified and inhabited.

36 The surviving nations around you will know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt what was torn down and have planted what was made desolate. I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it.

37 The LORD God proclaims: I will also allow the house of Israel to ask me to do this for them: that I increase them like a human flock.

38 Like the holy flock, like the flock of Jerusalem at its festivals, the ruined cities will be filled with a human flock. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

1 The LORD's power overcame me, and while I was in the LORD's spirit, he led me out and set me down in the middle of a certain valley. It was full of bones.

2 He led me through them all around, and I saw that there were a great many of them on the valley floor, and they were very dry.

3 He asked me, "Human one, can these bones live again?" I said, "LORD God, only you know."

4 He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, Dry bones, hear the LORD's word!

5 The LORD God proclaims to these bones: I am about to put breath in you, and you will live again.

6 I will put sinews on you, place flesh on you, and cover you with skin. When I put breath in you, and you come to life, you will know that I am the LORD."

7 I prophesied just as I was commanded. There was a great noise as I was prophesying, then a great quaking, and the bones came together, bone by bone.

8 When I looked, suddenly there were sinews on them. The flesh appeared, and then they were covered over with skin. But there was still no breath in them.

9 He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, human one! Say to the breath, The LORD God proclaims: Come from the four winds, breath! Breathe into these dead bodies and let them live."

10 I prophesied just as he commanded me. When the breath entered them, they came to life and stood on their feet, an extraordinarily large company.

11 He said to me, "Human one, these bones are the entire house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished. We are completely finished.'

12 So now, prophesy and say to them, The LORD God proclaims: I'm opening your graves! I will raise you up from your graves, my people, and I will bring you to Israel's fertile land.

13 You will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and raise you up from your graves, my people.

14 I will put my breath in you, and you will live. I will plant you on your fertile land, and you will know that I am the LORD. I've spoken, and I will do it. This is what the LORD says."

15 The LORD's word came to me:

16 You, human one, take a stick, and write on it, "Belonging to Judah and to the Israelites associated with him." Take another stick and write on it, "Stick of Ephraim belonging to Joseph and everyone of the house of Israel associated with him."

17 Join them to each other to make a single stick so that they become one stick in your hand.

18 When your people ask you, "Why won't you tell us what these sticks mean to you?"

19 say to them, The LORD God proclaims: I'm taking Joseph's stick, which has been in Ephraim's hand, and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I'm putting it with Judah's stick, and I'm making them into a single stick so that they will be one stick in my hand.

20 When the two sticks that you've written on are in your hand in their sight,

21 speak to them, This is what the LORD God says: I will take the Israelites from among the nations where they've gone, I will gather them from all around, and I will bring them to their fertile land.

22 I will make them into a single nation in the land on Israel's highlands. There will be just one king for all of them. They will no longer be two nations, and they will no longer be divided into two kingdoms.

23 They will no longer defile themselves with their idols or their worthless things or with any of their rebellions. I will deliver them from all the places where they sinned, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

24 My servant David will be king over them. There will be just one shepherd for all of them. They will follow my case laws and carefully observe my regulations.

25 They will live on the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where their ancestors lived. They will live on it, they and their children and their grandchildren, forever. My servant David will be their prince forever.

26 I will make a covenant of peace for them. It will be their covenant forever. I will grant it to them and allow them to increase. I will set my sanctuary among them forever.

27 My dwelling will be with them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.

28 The nations will know that I, the LORD, make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, face Gog in the land of Magog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Prophesy concerning him

3 and say, The LORD God proclaims: I challenge you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal!

4 I will turn you about, set hooks in your jaws, and lead you out, you and all your army, horses and riders, handsomely dressed, all of them, a great assembly, with buckler and shield, all of them wielding swords.

5 Persia, Cush, and Put are with you, all of them equipped with shield and helmet.

6 Gomer and all his troops, Beth-togarmah from the far north and all his troops; many peoples are with you.

7 Stand ready and be prepared, you and all your assembly. You will watch out for those who gather against you.

8 After many days you will be called out. In future years you will enter a country that has been freed from the sword, a gathering from many peoples on the mountains of Israel, which had become a perpetual ruin. This country was brought out from the peoples, and all of them live securely.

9 You will invade like a sudden storm. You and all your troops, and the many peoples with you, will be like clouds covering the earth.

10 The LORD God proclaims: On that day, thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan.

11 You will say, "I will go up against the open country and come against a quiet people who all live securely without walls, bars, or doors

12 to take plunder and seize loot, to use my power against the resettled waste places, against a people gathered from the nations, who are acquiring goods and cattle, and who live at the center of the earth."

13 Sheba and Dedan and the merchants and officials of Tarshish will say to you, "Have you come to take plunder and seize loot? Have you assembled your army to take silver and gold, to take goods and cattle, to engage in great looting?"

14 So now, prophesy, human one, and say to Gog, The LORD God proclaims: Isn't that what you will decide to do on that day, when my people Israel live securely?

15 You will come up from your place from the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding horses, a great assembly, a mighty army.

16 You will go up against my people Israel like a cloud covering the earth. But when this happens in future days, I will be the one who brings you up against my land, so that the nations may know me, Gog, when through you I show my holiness in their sight!

17 The LORD God proclaims: Are you the one about whom I spoke in former times through my servants, Israel's prophets, the ones who prophesied for years in those days to bring you against them?

18 On that day, the day when Gog comes against Israel's fertile land, my wrath will be aroused. This is what the LORD God says.

19 In my jealousy and blazing anger I declare: On that day, a great quaking will come over Israel's fertile land.

20 The fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, all the creatures crawling on the ground, and every living human being will quake in my presence. Mountains will be thrown down and cliffs will crumble; every wall will fall to the ground.

21 I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains. This is what the LORD God says! The swords of the warriors will be against each other,

22 and I will enter into judgment with him, with plague and blood. I will pour out flooding rain, hailstones, fire, and sulfur on him, on all his troops, and on the many peoples with him.

23 So I will display my greatness, show my holiness, and make myself known in the sight of many nations. And they will know that I am the LORD.