New Revised Standard NRS
The Message Bible MSG
1 And you, mortal, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say: O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord.
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"And now, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel. Say, 'Mountains of Israel, listen to God's Message.
2 Thus says the Lord God: Because the enemy said of you, "Aha!" and, "The ancient heights have become our possession,"
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God, the Master, says, Because the enemy crowed over you, "Good! Those old hills are now ours!"
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;
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now here is a prophecy in the name of God, the Master: Because nations came at you from all sides, ripping and plundering, hauling pieces of you off every which way, and you've become the butt of cheap gossip and jokes,
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;
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therefore, Mountains of Israel, listen to the Message of God, the Master. My Message to mountains and hills, to ditches and valleys, to the heaps of rubble and the emptied towns that are looted for plunder and turned into jokes by all the surrounding nations:
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.
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Therefore, says God, the Master, now I'm speaking in a fiery rage against the rest of the nations, but especially against Edom, who in an orgy of violence and shameless insolence robbed me of my land, grabbed it for themselves.'
6 Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and hills, to the watercourses and valleys, Thus says the Lord God: I am speaking in my jealous wrath, because you have suffered the insults of the nations;
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"Therefore prophesy over the land of Israel, preach to the mountains and hills, to every ditch and valley: 'The Message of God, the Master: Look! Listen! I'm angry - and I care. I'm speaking to you because you've been humiliated among the nations.
7 therefore thus says the Lord God: I swear that the nations that are all around you shall themselves suffer insults.
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Therefore I, God, the Master, am telling you that I've solemnly sworn that the nations around you are next. It's their turn to be humiliated.
8 But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot out your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they shall soon come home.
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"'But you, Mountains of Israel, will burst with new growth, putting out branches and bearing fruit for my people Israel. My people are coming home!
9 See now, I am for you; I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown;
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Do you see? I'm back again. I'm on your side. You'll be plowed and planted as before!
10 and I will multiply your population, the whole house of Israel, all of it; the towns shall be inhabited and the waste places rebuilt;
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I'll see to it that your population grows all over Israel, that the towns fill up with people, that the ruins are rebuilt.
11 and I will multiply human beings and animals upon you. They shall increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times, and will do more good to you than ever before. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.
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I'll make this place teem with life - human and animal. The country will burst into life, life, and more life, your towns and villages full of people just as in the old days. I'll treat you better than I ever have. And you'll realize that I am God.
12 I will lead people upon you—my people Israel—and they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance. No longer shall you bereave them of children.
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I'll put people over you - my own people Israel! They'll take care of you and you'll be their inheritance. Never again will you be a harsh and unforgiving land to them.
13 Thus says the Lord God: Because they say to you, "You devour people, and you bereave your nation of children,"
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"'God, the Master, says: Because you have a reputation of being a land that eats people alive and makes women barren,
14 therefore you shall no longer devour people and no longer bereave your nation of children, says the Lord God;
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I'm now telling you that you'll never eat people alive again nor make women barren. Decree of God, the Master.
15 and no longer will I let you hear the insults of the nations, no longer shall you bear the disgrace of the peoples; and no longer shall you cause your nation to stumble, says the Lord God.
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And I'll never again let the taunts of outsiders be heard over you nor permit nations to look down on you. You'll no longer be a land that makes women barren. Decree of God, the Master.'"
16 The word of the Lord came to me:
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God's Message came to me:
17 Mortal, when the house of Israel lived on their own soil, they defiled it with their ways and their deeds; their conduct in my sight was like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual period.
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"Son of man, when the people of Israel lived in their land, they polluted it by the way they lived. I poured out my anger on them because of the polluted blood they poured out on the ground.
18 So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for the idols with which they had defiled it.
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And so I got thoroughly angry with them polluting the country with their wanton murders and dirty gods.
19 I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries; in accordance with their conduct and their deeds I judged them.
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I kicked them out, exiled them to other countries. I sentenced them according to how they had lived.
20 But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that it was said of them, "These are the people of the Lord, and yet they had to go out of his land."
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Wherever they went, they gave me a bad name. People said, 'These are God's people, but they got kicked off his land.'
21 But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.
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I suffered much pain over my holy reputation, which the people of Israel blackened in every country they entered.
22 Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
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"Therefore, tell Israel, 'Message of God, the Master: I'm not doing this for you, Israel. I'm doing it for me, to save my character, my holy name, which you've blackened in every country where you've gone.
23 I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when through you I display my holiness before their eyes.
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I'm going to put my great and holy name on display, the name that has been ruined in so many countries, the name that you blackened wherever you went. Then the nations will realize who I really am, that I am God, when I show my holiness through you so that they can see it with their own eyes.
24 I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land.
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"'For here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to take you out of these countries, gather you from all over, and bring you back to your own land.
25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
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I'll pour pure water over you and scrub you clean.
26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
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I'll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I'll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that's God-willed, not self-willed.
27 I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.
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I'll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands.
28 Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
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You'll once again live in the land I gave your ancestors. You'll be my people! I'll be your God!
29 I will save you from all your uncleannesses, and I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you.
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"'I'll pull you out of that stinking pollution. I'll give personal orders to the wheat fields, telling them to grow bumper crops. I'll send no more famines.
30 I will make the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field abundant, so that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations.
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I'll make sure your fruit trees and field crops flourish. Other nations won't be able to hold you in contempt again because of famine.
31 Then you shall remember your evil ways, and your dealings that were not good; and you shall loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominable deeds.
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"'And then you'll think back over your terrible lives - the evil, the shame - and be thoroughly disgusted with yourselves, realizing how badly you've lived - all those obscenities you've carried out.
32 It is not for your sake that I will act, says the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and dismayed for your ways, O house of Israel.
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"'I'm not doing this for you. Get this through your thick heads! Shame on you. What a mess you made of things, Israel!
33 Thus says the Lord God: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the towns to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt.
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"'Message of God, the Master: On the day I scrub you clean from all your filthy living, I'll also make your cities livable. The ruins will be rebuilt.
34 The land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by.
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The neglected land will be worked again, no longer overgrown with weeds and thistles, worthless in the eyes of passersby.
35 And they will say, "This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined towns are now inhabited and fortified."
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People will exclaim, "Why, this weed patch has been turned into a Garden of Eden! And the ruined cities, smashed into oblivion, are now thriving!"
36 Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places, and replanted that which was desolate; I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it.
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The nations around you that are still in existence will realize that I, God, rebuild ruins and replant empty waste places. I, God, said so, and I'll do it.
37 Thus says the Lord God: I will also let the house of Israel ask me to do this for them: to increase their population like a flock.
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"'Message of God, the Master: Yet again I'm going to do what Israel asks. I'll increase their population as with a flock of sheep.
38 Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed festivals, so shall the ruined towns be filled with flocks of people. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.
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Like the milling flocks of sheep brought for sacrifices in Jerusalem during the appointed feasts, the ruined cities will be filled with flocks of people. And they'll realize that I am God.'"
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.