Ezekiel 36:7-17

7 I, the Sovereign Lord, solemnly promise that the surrounding nations will be humiliated.
8 But on the mountains of Israel the trees will again grow leaves and bear fruit for you, my people Israel. You are going to come home soon.
9 I am on your side, and I will make sure that your land is plowed again and crops are planted on it.
10 I will make your population grow. You will live in the cities and rebuild everything that was left in ruins.
11 I will make people and cattle increase in number. There will be more of you than ever before, and you will have many children. I will let you live there as you used to live, and I will make you more prosperous than ever. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
12 I will bring you, my people Israel, back to live again in the land. It will be your own land, and it will never again let your children starve.
13 "I, the Sovereign Lord, say: It is true that people say that the land eats people and that it robs the nation of its children.
14 But from now on it will no longer eat people and rob you of your children. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.
15 The land will no longer have to listen to the nations making fun of it or see the peoples sneer at it. The land will no longer rob the nation of its children. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken."
16 The Lord spoke to me.
17 "Mortal man," he said, "when the Israelites were living in their land, they defiled it by the way they lived and acted. I regarded their behavior as being as ritually unclean as a woman is during her monthly period.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. ritually unclean . . . period: [This is based on the view of ritual uncleanness described in the Law of Moses (see Lv 15.19).]
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.