CHAPTER 36

¹And you, man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, Mountains of Israel, heed the word of the LORD. ²Thus said the Master, the LORD: “Inasmuch as the enemy said of you, ‘Hurrah! The age-old high places have become an inheritance for us,’ ³therefore, prophesy and say, Thus said the Master, the LORD: Surely inasmuch as to devastate and trample you all round, that you become an inheritance for the remnant of the nations and come up on the tip of the tongue and in the people’s slander, ⁴therefore, hear the word of the Master, the LORD. Thus said the Master, the LORD, to the mountains and to the hills and to the watercourses and to the valleys and to the desolate ruins and to the deserted towns that had become a scorn and mockery for the remnant of the nations that were all round. ⁵Therefore, thus said the Master, the LORD: I have surely spoken in the fire of My zeal concerning the remnant of the nations and concerning all Edom that made My land an inheritance for themselves with the joy of every heart and with spite so as to take its fields in plunder. ⁶Therefore, prophesy concerning the soil of Israel and speak to the mountains and to the hills and to the watercourses. Thus said the Master, the LORD: Look, in My zeal and in My wrath I have spoken inasmuch as you have borne the disgrace of nations. ⁷Therefore, thus said the Master, the LORD: I Myself have raised My hand—the nations that are all round you shall surely bear their disgrace. ⁸And you, O mountains of Israel, you shall put forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel, for soon shall they come. ⁹For here I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown. ¹⁰And I will multiply humankind upon you, the whole house of Israel, all of it, and the towns shall be settled and the ruins shall be rebuilt. ¹¹And I will multiply upon you man and beast, and they shall multiply and be fruitful, and I will settle you as you were before and do well by you more than in your beginnings, and you shall know that I am the LORD. ¹²And I will lead humankind upon you, My people, and they shall take hold of you, and you shall become for them an estate, and you no longer shall make them bereaved. ¹³Thus said the Master, the LORD: Inasmuch as they say of you, ‘You are a man-eater, and a bereaver of your nations you are,’ ¹⁴therefore, you shall no longer eat man, and you shall no longer bereave your nations. You no longer shall stumble, said the LORD. ¹⁵And I will no longer let the disgrace of the nations be heard against you, and the taunts of the people you shall no longer hear, and you shall no longer make your nations stumble,” said the Master, the LORD.

¹⁶And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ¹⁷“Man, the house of Israel dwell on their land and defile it through their way and through their acts. Like the defilement of the menstruant has their way been before Me. ¹⁸And I poured out My wrath upon them for the blood they shed on the land and for their foul things by which they defiled it. ¹⁹And I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed among the lands. According to their way and their acts have I judged them. ²⁰And they came to the nations where they came and profaned My holy name when it was said to them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and from His land they have gone out.’ ²¹But I had pity for My holy name that the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they had come. ²²Therefore, say to the house of Israel, Thus said the LORD: Not for your sake do I act, house of Israel, but for My holy name that you have profaned among the nations where you have come. ²³And I will hallow My great name profaned among the nations that you profaned in their midst, and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, said the Master, the LORD, when I am hallowed through you before their eyes. ²⁴And I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the lands and bring you to your soil. ²⁵And I will cast upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed of all your defilements, and of all your foul things I will cleanse you. ²⁶And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷And My spirit I will put within you, and I will act so that you go by My statutes and keep My laws, and you shall do it. ²⁸And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall become My people, and I will be your God. ²⁹And I will rescue you from all your defilements, and I will call forth the grain and make it abundant, and I will not set famine upon you. ³⁰And I will make the fruit of the tree abundant and the yield of the field so that you no longer bear the disgrace of famine among the nations. ³¹And you shall recall your evil ways and your acts that were not good, and you shall be disgusted by your crimes and by your abominations. ³²Not for your sake do I act, said the Master, the LORD. Let it be known to you—be ashamed and remorseful for your ways, O house of Israel.” ³³Thus said the Master, the LORD: “On the day I cleanse you of all your crimes and settle the towns, and the ruins are rebuilt, ³⁴and the desolate land is tilled after having been desolate before the eyes of every passerby, ³⁵they shall say, ‘That desolate land has become like the garden of Eden, and the ruined and desolate and ravaged towns are settled, fortified.’ ³⁶And the nations that shall remain all round about you shall know that I the LORD have rebuilt the ravaged towns, I have sown the desolate land. I the LORD have spoken and have done it.” ³⁷Thus said the Master, the LORD: “For this, too, will I be sought out for the house of Israel to do for them—I will multiply humans like sheep. ³⁸Like consecrated sheep, like the sheep of Jerusalem on its festivals, so shall the ruined towns be filled with human sheep, and they shall know that I am the LORD.”