Ezekiel 36

²“Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

³You are to say: ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! This is what the Lord God says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

²⁹O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord!

²²I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over all of them. Then they will no longer be two nations and will never again be divided into two kingdoms.

⁴therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. This is what the Lord God says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the desolate ruins and abandoned cities, which have become a spoil and a mockery to the rest of the nations around you.

⁸But you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and bear fruit for My people Israel, for they will soon come home.

²⁸I will make the land a desolate waste, and the pride of her strength will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will become desolate, so that no one will pass through.

¹³He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag,

³Tell the Ammonites to hear the word of the Lord God, for this is what the Lord God says: ‘Because you exclaimed, “Aha!” when My sanctuary was profaned, when the land of Israel was laid waste, and when the house of Judah went into exile,

¹⁰Because you have said, ‘These two nations and countries will be ours, and we will possess them,’ even though the Lord was there,

¹⁹God the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer; He makes me walk upon the heights! For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments.

⁶⁹He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth He has established forever.

²“Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gate to the nations is broken; it has swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will be filled,’

¹³You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us.

¹⁴You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.

¹⁵All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”

¹⁶All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day for which we have waited. We have lived to see it!”

¹⁶They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads.

¹In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family and one of the king’s chief officers, came with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah, and they ate a meal together there.

²Then Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him got up and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, killing the one whom the king of Babylon had appointed to govern the land.

¹⁰Because they have led My people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and whitewashing any flimsy wall that is built,

²⁴“Have you not noticed what these people are saying: ‘The Lord has rejected the two families He had chosen’? So they despise My people and no longer regard them as a nation.

¹¹But the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks in the rain from heaven.

²⁸They will no longer be prey for the nations, and the beasts of the earth will not consume them. They will dwell securely, and no one will frighten them.

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

⁴We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.

⁶Therefore, prophesy concerning the land of Israel and tell the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys, that this is what the Lord God says: Behold, I have spoken in My burning zeal because you have endured the reproach of the nations.

¹⁰For this is what the Lord says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.

⁸Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.

³therefore prophesy and declare that this is what the Lord God says: Because they have made you desolate and have trampled you on every side, so that you became a possession of the rest of the nations and were taken up in slander by the lips of their talkers,

⁴saying, “Come, let us erase them as a nation; may the name of Israel be remembered no more.”

⁵For with one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against You—

⁷Remember, O Lord, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”

¹⁵but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity.’

¹⁹In My zeal and fiery rage I proclaim that on that day there will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.

³Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy, for we have endured much contempt.

⁴We have endured much scorn from the arrogant, much contempt from the proud.

²⁹And I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations.

¹⁰How long, O God, will the enemy taunt You? Will the foe revile Your name forever?

²³Do not disregard the clamor of Your adversaries, the uproar of Your enemies that ascends continually.

¹⁸Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O Lord, how a foolish people has spurned Your name.

¹⁵I will no longer allow the taunts of the nations to be heard against you, and you will no longer endure the reproach of the peoples or cause your nation to stumble, declares the Lord God.”

⁵and tell them that this is what the Lord God says: On the day I chose Israel, I swore an oath to the descendants of the house of Jacob and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt. With an uplifted hand I said to them, ‘I am the Lord your God.’

¹These are the words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders of Tekoa—what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, in the days when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.

²He said: “The Lord roars from Zion and raises His voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the summit of Carmel withers.”

¹Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²“Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them.

¹⁵This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from My hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it.

¹⁶And they will drink and stagger and go out of their minds, because of the sword that I will send among them.”

¹This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet about the Philistines before Pharaoh struck down Gaza.

²This is what the Lord says: “See how the waters are rising from the north and becoming an overflowing torrent. They will overflow the land and its fullness, the cities and their inhabitants. The people will cry out, and all who dwell in the land will wail

⁵Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven.

⁶And he swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and everything in it, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it: “There will be no more delay!

⁶In the days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole world with fruit.

³⁷For, “In just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay.

²⁶I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season—showers of blessing.

²⁷The trees of the field will give their fruit, and the land will yield its produce; My flock will be secure in their land. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and delivered them from the hands that enslaved them.

²On that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel’s survivors.

²¹“On that day I will respond—” declares the Lord—“I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth.

²²And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.

⁶The earth has yielded its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.

¹¹The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

³⁴The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through.

²¹“On that day I will respond—” declares the Lord—“I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth.

²²And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.

³¹What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

¹²“For the seed will be prosperous, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will yield its produce, and the skies will give their dew. To the remnant of this people I will give all these things as an inheritance.

¹⁹Is there still seed in the barn? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet yielded fruit. But from this day on, I will bless you.”

³³This is what the Lord God says: On the day I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be resettled and the ruins to be rebuilt.

¹⁹Thanksgiving will proceed from them, a sound of celebration. I will multiply them, and they will not be decreased; I will honor them, and they will not be belittled.

¹²This is what the Lord of Hosts says: In this desolate place, without man or beast, and in all its cities, there will once more be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks.

⁶In the days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole world with fruit.

³⁷This is what the Lord God says: Once again I will hear the plea of the house of Israel and do for them this: I will multiply their people like a flock.

²⁷“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and of beast.

²⁸Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, to demolish, destroy, and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord.

¹²This is what the Lord of Hosts says: In this desolate place, without man or beast, and in all its cities, there will once more be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks.

⁵Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign wisely as King and will administer justice and righteousness in the land.

⁶In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is His name by which He will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.

¹⁴Shepherd with Your staff Your people, the flock of Your inheritance. They live alone in a woodland, surrounded by pastures. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

¹³Then you, My people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.

²⁷“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and of beast.

²⁰And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the Lord.”

⁷I will scatter them with a winnowing fork at the gates of the land. I will bereave and destroy My people who have not turned from their ways.

¹⁴You are to divide it equally among them. Because I swore with an uplifted hand to give it to your forefathers, this land will fall to you as an inheritance.

¹⁷But on Mount Zion there will be deliverance, and it will be holy, and the house of Jacob will reclaim their possession.

¹⁸Then the house of Jacob will be a blazing fire, and the house of Joseph a burning flame; but the house of Esau will be stubble—Jacob will set it ablaze and consume it. Therefore no survivor will remain from the house of Esau.” For the Lord has spoken.

³²So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature.

¹³For this is what the Lord God says: Because people say to you, ‘You devour men and deprive your nation of its children,’

⁴⁴Fields will be purchased with silver, and deeds will be signed, sealed, and witnessed in the land of Benjamin, in the areas surrounding Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah—the cities of the hill country, the foothills, and the Negev—because I will restore them from captivity, declares the Lord.”

³²So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature.

²⁵They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live there forever with their children and grandchildren, and My servant David will be their prince forever.

²⁶And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary among them forever.

²¹Then all your people will be righteous; they will possess the land forever; they are the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, so that I may be glorified.

¹⁵I will firmly plant them in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land that I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

⁵⁰Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants, which I bear in my heart from so many people—

²⁹And I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations.

⁴Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame; do not be intimidated, for you will not be humiliated. For you will forget the shame of your youth and will remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.

¹⁴The sons of your oppressors will come and bow down to you; all who reviled you will fall facedown at your feet and call you the City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

⁶Therefore, prophesy concerning the land of Israel and tell the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys, that this is what the Lord God says: Behold, I have spoken in My burning zeal because you have endured the reproach of the nations.

⁸“I have heard the reproach of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, who have taunted My people and threatened their borders.

⁷I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but you came and defiled My land and made My inheritance detestable.

³³Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

³⁴Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell. For I, the Lord, dwell among the Israelites.”

¹⁰Arise and depart, for this is not your place of rest, because its defilement brings destruction—a grievous destruction!

¹⁸And I will first repay them double their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and they have filled My inheritance with their abominations.”

¹⁹When a woman has a discharge consisting of blood from her body, she will be unclean due to her menstruation for seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening.

²⁰Anything on which she lies or sits during her menstruation will be unclean,

⁵The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant.

⁸Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you and vent My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations.

²¹“Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for those remaining in Israel and Judah concerning the words in the book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that has been poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord by doing all that is written in this book.”

¹¹The Lord has exhausted His wrath; He has poured out His fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations.

⁴He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned. Like a foe He has killed all who were pleasing to the eye; He has poured out His wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.

⁶Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.

³⁶This is what the Lord God says: Because you poured out your wealth and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them,

³⁷therefore I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose you before them, and they will see you completely naked.

⁶⁴Then the Lord will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

²⁴I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and transgressions, and I hid My face from them.

⁶God “will repay each one according to his deeds.”

³⁰Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall.

¹²A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

¹⁵I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you throughout the lands; I will purge your uncleanness.

⁵And now what have I here? declares the Lord. For My people have been taken without cause; those who rule them taunt, declares the Lord, and My name is blasphemed continually all day long.

²⁴As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

²⁴“Have you not noticed what these people are saying: ‘The Lord has rejected the two families He had chosen’? So they despise My people and no longer regard them as a nation.

¹⁵Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the statue I have made, very good. But if you refuse to worship, you will be thrown at once into the blazing fiery furnace. Then what god will be able to deliver you from my hands?”

¹¹But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God, saying, “O Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

¹²Why should the Egyptians declare, ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce anger and relent from doing harm to Your people.

⁹When the Canaanites and all who live in the land hear about this, they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. Then what will You do for Your great name?”

⁹For the sake of My name I will delay My wrath; for the sake of My praise I will restrain it, so that you will not be cut off.

¹⁸Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O Lord, how a foolish people has spurned Your name.

⁹But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they were living, in whose sight I had revealed Myself to Israel by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

²²But I withheld My hand and acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

³⁵‘I will defend this city and save it for My own sake and for the sake of My servant David.’”

¹⁴But I acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

⁸Yet He saved them for the sake of His name, to make His power known.

³²It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God—let it be known to you. Be ashamed and disgraced for your ways, O house of Israel!

¹Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name be the glory, because of Your loving devotion, because of Your faithfulness.

²Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”

⁷The Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

⁸But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁵It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the Lord your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁶Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

⁴¹When I bring you from the peoples and gather you from the lands to which you have been scattered, I will accept you as a pleasing aroma. And I will show My holiness through you in the sight of the nations.

⁷So I will make My holy name known among My people Israel and will no longer allow it to be profaned. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.

⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

¹⁰“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.”

¹⁶But the Lord of Hosts will be exalted by His justice, and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.

²⁸Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, when I regather them to their own land, not leaving any of them behind after their exile among the nations.

²¹you are to tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘I will take the Israelites out of the nations to which they have gone, and I will gather them from all around and bring them into their own land.

¹³I will bring them out from the peoples, gather them from the countries, and bring them into their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines, and in all the settlements of the land.

¹⁴I will restore My people Israel from captivity; they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.

¹⁵I will firmly plant them in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land that I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

²Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy

³and gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.

³For behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will restore from captivity My people Israel and Judah, declares the Lord. I will restore them to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it.’”

¹⁷Therefore declare that this is what the Lord God says: ‘I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries to which you have been scattered, and I will give back to you the land of Israel.’

²²let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

⁵Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

⁸And I will cleanse them from all the iniquity they have committed against Me, and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against Me.

⁷But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

⁵He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

⁶This is the Spirit He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

²⁶to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,

²⁷and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.

¹⁹And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh,

²⁰so that they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

¹⁷Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!

⁶The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.

³Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

⁴“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?”

³It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

³For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

⁴But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,

²¹equip you with every good thing to do His will. And may He accomplish in us what is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

²⁹And I will no longer hide My face from them, for I will pour out My Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Lord God.”

¹⁶Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

³³“But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.

²³If you had repented at my rebuke, then surely I would have poured out my spirit on you; I would have made my words known to you.

³³“But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.

³⁸They will be My people, and I will be their God.

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

²⁰so that they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.

²³They will no longer defile themselves with their idols or detestable images, or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all their apostasies by which they sinned, and I will cleanse them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.

³²‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

²¹She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”

²¹“On that day I will respond—” declares the Lord—“I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth.

²²And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.

⁷He came as a witness to testify about the Light, so that through him everyone might believe.

⁸He himself was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.

²⁶And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will remove godlessness from Jacob.

⁴I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for My anger has turned away from them.

¹⁴He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

²⁷The trees of the field will give their fruit, and the land will yield its produce; My flock will be secure in their land. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and delivered them from the hands that enslaved them.

²⁶You will have plenty to eat, until you are satisfied. You will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you. My people will never again be put to shame.

²³All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His fierce anger.

²⁴So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’

⁴I will give you rains in their season, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.

¹⁷Let the priests who minister before the Lord weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

⁹Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.

²⁶But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.

²⁷So You delivered them into the hands of enemies who oppressed them, and in their time of distress they cried out to You. From heaven You heard them, and in Your great compassion You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hands of their enemies.

⁴³There you will remember your ways and all the deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves for all the evils you have done.

⁶Therefore I despise myself, and I repent in dust and ashes.”

⁵Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”

⁶¹Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of My covenant with you.

⁶²So I will establish My covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord,

⁵It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the Lord your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

²²Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord God says: It is not for your sake that I will act, O house of Israel, but for My holy name, which you profaned among the nations to which you went.

³For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

⁴But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,

⁹He has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose and by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time began.

¹⁸Incline Your ear, O my God, and hear; open Your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You because of our righteous acts, but because of Your great compassion.

¹⁹O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people bear Your name.”

²¹What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death.

¹²Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling.

¹⁰I will multiply the people upon you—the house of Israel in its entirety. The cities will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.

¹⁰This is what the Lord says: In this place you say is a wasteland without man or beast, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted—inhabited by neither man nor beast—there will be heard again

⁷This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “I will save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west.

⁸I will bring them back to dwell in Jerusalem, where they will be My people, and I will be their faithful and righteous God.”

⁴³And fields will be bought in this land about which you are saying, ‘It is a desolation, without man or beast; it has been delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans.’

¹⁹I will return Israel to his pasture, and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan; his soul will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.

²⁰In those days and at that time, declares the Lord, a search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but they will not be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.

¹⁴I will stretch out My hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’”

⁹behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the Lord, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.

¹⁰Moreover, I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.

²³All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His fierce anger.

²⁴So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’

²¹So the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation, until seventy years were completed, in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah.

³For the Lord will comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and melodious song.

³Before them a fire devours, and behind them a flame scorches. The land before them is like the Garden of Eden, but behind them, it is like a desert wasteland—surely nothing will escape them.

⁹So this city will bring Me renown, joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good I do for it. They will tremble in awe because of all the goodness and prosperity that I will provide for it.

¹¹Then men will say, “There is surely a reward for the righteous! There is surely a God who judges the earth!”

⁹Then all mankind will fear and proclaim the work of God; so they will ponder what He has done.

¹³Then you, My people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.

³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

²⁴Then all the trees of the field will know that I am the Lord. I bring the tall tree down and make the low tree tall. I dry up the green tree and make the withered tree flourish. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it.’”

¹⁴I will put My Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.’”

¹⁹God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

⁴I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for My anger has turned away from them.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

¹⁴Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will act.

²¹and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

²²let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

¹⁴And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

³“Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I consult with them in any way?

⁶I will strengthen the house of Judah and save the house of Joseph. I will restore them because I have compassion on them, and they will be as though I had not rejected them. For I am the Lord their God, and I will answer them.

⁹Though I sow them among the nations, they will remember Me in distant lands; they and their children will live and return.

³“Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and tell them that this is what the Lord God says: Have you come to inquire of Me? As surely as I live, I will not be consulted by you, declares the Lord God.

⁵Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

⁶And when this sound rang out, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking his own language.

¹⁶I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd.

⁶³And Solomon offered as peace offerings to the Lord 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the house of the Lord.

⁷From his own flocks and herds Josiah contributed 30,000 lambs and goats plus 3,000 bulls for the Passover offerings for all the people who were present.

⁸His officials also contributed willingly to the people and priests and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the chief officials of the house of God, gave the priests 2,600 Passover offerings and 300 bulls.

⁸So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him—a very great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—kept the feast for seven days.

³³This is what the Lord God says: On the day I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be resettled and the ruins to be rebuilt.

³⁴The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through.