Ezequiel 36

ARC · Chapter 36/48

1E tu, ó filho do homem, prophetiza aos montes de Israel, e dize: Montes de Israel, ouvi a palavra do Senhor.

2Assim diz o Senhor Jehovah: Porquanto diz o inimigo sobre vós: Ah! ah! até as eternas alturas são por nossa herança;

3Portanto, prophetiza, e dize: Assim diz o Senhor Jehovah: Porquanto vos assolaram e devoraram em redor, para que vós ficasseis feitos herança do resto das nações, e estaes levantados em labios do paroleiro, e em infamia do povo,

4Portanto, ouvi, ó montes de Israel, a palavra do Senhor Jehovah: Assim diz o Senhor Jehovah aos montes e aos outeiros, ás correntes e aos valles, aos logares assolados e solitarios, e ás cidades desamparadas, que se tornaram em rapina e em escarneo ao resto das nações que lhes estão em redor

5Portanto, assim diz o Senhor Jehovah: Certamente no fogo do meu zelo fallei contra o resto das nações, e contra todo o Edom, que se appropriaram da minha terra, com alegria de todo o coração, e com menosprezo da alma, para ser lançada fóra á rapina

6Portanto, prophetiza sobre a terra de Israel, e dize aos montes e aos outeiros, ás correntes e aos valles: Assim diz o Senhor Jehovah: Eis que fallei no meu zelo e no meu furor, porquanto levastes sobre vós o opprobrio dos gentios.

7Portanto, assim diz o Senhor Jehovah: Eu levantei a minha mão, para que os gentios que vos estão em redor levem o seu opprobrio sobre si mesmos.

8Porém vós, ó montes de Israel, ainda produzireis o vosso ramo, e dareis o vosso fructo para o meu povo de Israel; porque estão para vir

9Porque eis que eu estou comvosco; e eu me virarei para vós, e sereis lavrados e semeados.

10E multiplicarei os homens sobre vós, a toda a casa de Israel, a toda ella: e as cidades serão habitadas, e as solidões serão edificadas.

11E multiplicarei homens e bestas sobre vós, e se multiplicarão, e fructificarão: e vos farei habitar como d'antes, e o farei melhor que nos vossos principios; e sabereis que eu sou o Senhor.

12E farei andar sobre vós uns homens; o meu povo de Israel: elles te possuirão, e serás a sua herança, e nunca mais os desfilharás.

13Assim diz o Senhor Jehovah: Porquanto vos dizem: Tu és uma terra que devora os homens, e és uma terra que desfilha os seus povos;

14Por isso tu não devorarás mais os homens, nem desfilharás mais os teus povos, diz o Senhor Jehovah.

15E farei que nunca mais se ouça em ti a affronta dos gentios; nem levarás mais sobre ti o opprobrio das gentes nem mais desfilharás a tua nação, diz o Senhor Jehovah.

16E veiu a mim a palavra do Senhor, dizendo:

17Filho do homem, quando a casa de Israel habitava na sua terra, então a contaminaram com os seus caminhos e com as suas acções: como a immundicia de uma mulher separada, era o seu caminho perante o meu rosto.

18Derramei pois o meu furor sobre elles, por causa do sangue que derramaram sobre a terra, e dos seus idolos, com que a contaminaram.

19E os espalhei entre as nações, e foram espalhados pelas terras: conforme os seus caminhos, e conforme os seus tratos, os julguei.

20E, chegando ás nações para onde se foram, profanaram o meu sancto nome; porquanto se dizia d'elles: Estes são o povo do Senhor, e sairam da sua terra.

21Porém os poupei por amor do meu sancto nome, o qual a casa de Israel profanou entre as nações para onde foi.

22Dize portanto á casa de Israel: Assim diz o Senhor Jehovah: Não é por vosso respeito que eu o faço, ó casa de Israel, porém pelo meu sancto nome, que profanaste entre as nações para onde vós fostes.

23E eu sanctificarei o meu grande nome, que foi profanado entre as nações, o qual profanastes no meio d'ellas; e as nações saberão que eu sou o Senhor, diz o Senhor Jehovah, quando eu fôr sanctificado aos seus olhos

24E vos tomarei d'entre as nações, e vos congregarei de todas as terras, e vos trarei para a vossa terra.

25Então espalharei agua pura sobre vós, e ficareis purificados: de todas as vossas immundicias e de todos os vossos idolos vos purificarei.

26E vos darei um coração novo, e porei dentro de vós um espirito novo; e tirarei o coração de pedra da vossa carne, e vos darei um coração de carne.

27E porei dentro de vós o meu espirito, e farei que andeis nos meus estatutos, e guardeis os meus juizos, e os façaes.

28E habitareis na terra que eu dei a vossos paes, e vós me sereis por povo, e eu vos serei por Senhor.

29E vos livrarei de todas as vossas immundicias; e chamarei o trigo, e o multiplicarei, e não trarei fome sobre vós.

30E multiplicarei o fructo das arvores, e a novidade do campo, para que nunca mais recebaes o opprobrio da fome entre as nações.

31Então vos lembrareis dos vossos maus caminhos, e dos vossos tratos, que não foram bons; e tereis nojo em vós mesmos das vossas maldades e das vossas abominações.

32Não é por amor de vós que eu faço isto, diz o Senhor Jehovah; notorio vos seja: envergonhae-vos, e ficae confusa sobre os vossos caminhos, ó casa de Israel.

33Assim diz o Senhor Jehovah: No dia em que eu vos purificar de todas as vossas maldades, então farei com que sejam habitadas as cidades e sejam edificadas as solidões.

34E a terra assolada se lavrará, em logar de ser assolada aos olhos de todos os que passavam.

35E dirão: Esta terra assolada ficou como jardim do Eden; e as cidades solitarias, e assoladas, e destruidas, estão fortalecidas e habitadas.

36Então saberão as nações, que ficarem de resto em redor de vós, que eu, o Senhor, reedifico as cidades destruidas, e planto o assolado: eu, o Senhor, o fallei, e farei.

37Assim diz o Senhor Jehovah: Ainda por isso serei requerido da casa de Israel, que lh'o faça: multiplical-os-hei de homens, como a um rebanho.

38Como o rebanho sanctificado, como o rebanho de Jerusalem nas suas solemnidades, assim as cidades desertas serão cheias de rebanhos de homens; e saberão que eu sou o Senhor.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God promises to restore the mountains of Israel, bringing the people back to the land, cleansing them with pure water, giving them a heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone, and making the land flourish once again.

Explanation

After so many chapters of judgment against Israel and its neighboring nations, this is one of the book's first great chapters of full restoration. The promise of sprinkling with clean water (v. 25) as a symbol of spiritual cleansing, together with the new heart and God's own Spirit dwelling within the people (vv. 26-27), forms one of the clearest descriptions in the Old Testament of a deep inward transformation, not merely an outward one. It is worth noting that God states he does this 'not for your sake... but for the sake of my holy name' (v. 22), emphasizing that restoration flows from God's grace and character, not human merit. This passage is foundational for understanding later New Testament promises about a new covenant and a new spiritual birth.

Fun facts

  • The promise of a 'heart of flesh' and a 'new spirit' (v. 26) is cited by Christian theologians as one of the Old Testament's foundations for the concept of the new covenant, a central theme of Jesus' Last Supper (Luke 22:20).
  • The mention of the desolate land becoming 'like the garden of Eden' (v. 35) is one of the rare times the prophets use the image of the original paradise to describe the hope of future restoration.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Ezequiel 36:1Ezekiel is instructed to prophesy directly to ‘the mountains of Israel’ — the landscape itself is treated as a character, reinforcing that the promised restoration includes the land, not just the people.
  2. Ezequiel 36:2The accusation: the neighboring enemies celebrated having taken possession of ‘the ancient high places,’ Israel’s mountainous region, as though it were already their own inheritance.
  3. Ezequiel 36:3It acknowledges that the nations devoured and laid waste to Israel’s land, making it a byword for gossip and shame among the neighboring peoples.
  4. Ezequiel 36:4A formal summons directed at the whole landscape — mountains, valleys, abandoned cities — to hear the word God is about to announce.
  5. Ezequiel 36:5God declares indignation against the nations, especially Edom, which took Israel’s land with joy and contempt, like someone plundering without remorse.
  6. Ezequiel 36:6It repeats the reason for the divine indignation: the people of Israel bore the shame imposed by the neighboring nations, and that would not go unanswered.
  7. Ezequiel 36:7God swears, using the image of ‘lifting up mine hand’ (a gesture of oath-taking), that the very nations who mocked would bear their own shame.
  8. Ezequiel 36:8After chapters of judgment against the nations, the text turns to speak directly again to ‘the mountains of Israel’ — a poetic device treating the land itself as a character, promising that it would once more be cultivated and inhabited.
  9. Ezequiel 36:9A promise of God’s direct attention to the land: it would be plowed and sown again, a sign of renewed agricultural life after abandonment.
  10. Ezequiel 36:10A promise of repopulation: the cities would be inhabited again and the ruins rebuilt.
  11. Ezequiel 36:11An even broader promise: people and animals would multiply, and things would be better than they had been before the exile.
  12. Ezequiel 36:12The people of Israel themselves would possess the land again as an inheritance, no longer at risk of losing it again.
  13. Ezequiel 36:13It picks up on a negative reputation other nations gave the land: calling it ‘thou land devourest up men,’ perhaps because of its string of wars and disasters.
  14. Ezequiel 36:14A promise to reverse that negative reputation: the land would ‘devour men no more’ among its own inhabitants.
  15. Ezequiel 36:15The conclusion of this first part: an end to humiliation and shame before the other nations, closing the speech addressed to the mountains.
  16. Ezequiel 36:16The formula that opens a new section of the chapter, now explaining the underlying reason behind the whole exile.
  17. Ezequiel 36:17An unusual comparison: the people’s conduct in their own land is described as ritual impurity — the era’s language for something temporarily contaminated, not a judgment on the person being compared.
  18. Ezequiel 36:18The reason for the punishment: violence (shed blood) and idolatry had contaminated the land in God’s eyes.
  19. Ezequiel 36:19That is why the people were scattered among the nations, judged according to the very deeds they had committed.
  20. Ezequiel 36:20Even in exile the problem continued: the nations saw the scattered Jews and wrongly concluded that their God was weak — this ‘profaned’ God’s name among the peoples.
  21. Ezequiel 36:21That is why God decides to act, not because of the people’s merit, but to protect His own reputation before the other nations.
  22. Ezequiel 36:22‘I do not this for your sakes… but for mine holy name’s sake’ is one of the most candid verses in the book: the restoration that follows is not presented as a reward for good behavior, but as something God does for His own reasons.
  23. Ezequiel 36:23The central announcement: God would restore the honor of His own name before the nations, and this would happen through the visible restoration of Israel.
  24. Ezequiel 36:24A concrete promise picking up a theme from earlier chapters: gathering the people scattered among the nations and bringing them back to their own land.
  25. Ezequiel 36:25The promise of clean water, a new heart, and a new spirit repeats the idea already announced in 11:19 — the solution to the people’s constant rebellion is no longer an external law, it is an internal change that the text itself attributes to God’s own initiative, not to human effort.
  26. Ezequiel 36:26One of the most quoted verses in the book: the promise of ‘a new heart,’ exchanging the ‘stony heart,’ hard and unfeeling, for ‘an heart of flesh,’ capable of truly changing.
  27. Ezequiel 36:27God’s ‘spirit’ placed within the people is what would enable this change of behavior, allowing them to follow the commandments in a genuine way.
  28. Ezequiel 36:28The result of the inner change: living in the promised land, with the covenant relationship restored — ‘my people’ on one side, ‘your God’ on the other.
  29. Ezequiel 36:29A promise of material abundance: an end to the former impurities and the guarantee that the people would never lack for grain.
  30. Ezequiel 36:30It reinforces the promised agricultural abundance, doing away once and for all with the shame of famine the people felt before other nations.
  31. Ezequiel 36:31The expected reaction of the people to this restoration: remembering their own past wrongs and feeling genuine shame, out of recognition, not out of punishment.
  32. Ezequiel 36:32It repeats the theme of v.22: the restoration is not the people’s merit, and the shame they would feel looking back at their own past is appropriate.
  33. Ezequiel 36:33It connects the inner purification with the outward restoration: at the same moment of purification, the destroyed cities would be rebuilt.
  34. Ezequiel 36:34The land that had lain desolate would be cultivated again, reversing the image of abandonment described at the very start of the chapter.
  35. Ezequiel 36:35Comparing the restored land to ‘the garden of Eden’ closes a cycle of language already seen in chapters 28 and 31 — the idea of a lost and recovered paradise appears repeatedly in the book as an image of complete restoration.
  36. Ezequiel 36:36Even the neighboring nations would recognize God’s hand rebuilding what had been destroyed — the restoration works as a public testimony.
  37. Ezequiel 36:37The final promise: the people would grow in number, compared to a flock — God shows Himself willing to grant the people’s requests connected to this multiplication.
  38. Ezequiel 36:38The image of ‘the flock of Jerusalem’ at the religious feasts, when the city filled with people and animals, describes how the once-empty cities would be full again.

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