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Ezekiel 36

KJV · Chapter 36/48

1Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord:

2Thus saith the Lord God; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession:

3Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people:

4Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about;

5Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.

6Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen:

7Therefore thus saith the Lord God; I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame.

8But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.

9For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown:

10And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded:

11And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

12Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men.

13Thus saith the Lord God; Because they say unto you, Thou land devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy nations;

14Therefore thou shalt devour men no more, neither bereave thy nations any more, saith the Lord God.

15Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the heathen any more, neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people any more, neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more, saith the Lord God.

16Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

17Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.

18Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it:

19And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.

20And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of his land.

21But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.

22Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.

23And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

24For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

25Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

26A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

27And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

28And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

29I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.

30And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.

31Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

32Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.

33Thus saith the Lord God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.

34And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.

35And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.

36Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it.

37Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.

38As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

📖 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 36:4A formal summons directed at the whole landscape — mountains, valleys, abandoned cities — to hear the word God is about to announce.
  5. Ezekiel 36:5God declares indignation against the nations, especially Edom, which took Israel’s land with joy and contempt, like someone plundering without remorse.
  6. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 36:10A promise of repopulation: the cities would be inhabited again and the ruins rebuilt.
  11. Ezekiel 36:11An even broader promise: people and animals would multiply, and things would be better than they had been before the exile.
  12. Ezekiel 36:12The people of Israel themselves would possess the land again as an inheritance, no longer at risk of losing it again.
  13. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 36:14A promise to reverse that negative reputation: the land would ‘devour men no more’ among its own inhabitants.
  15. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 36:16The formula that opens a new section of the chapter, now explaining the underlying reason behind the whole exile.
  17. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 36:18The reason for the punishment: violence (shed blood) and idolatry had contaminated the land in God’s eyes.
  19. Ezekiel 36:19That is why the people were scattered among the nations, judged according to the very deeds they had committed.
  20. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 36:29A promise of material abundance: an end to the former impurities and the guarantee that the people would never lack for grain.
  30. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 36:33It connects the inner purification with the outward restoration: at the same moment of purification, the destroyed cities would be rebuilt.
  34. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 36:36Even the neighboring nations would recognize God’s hand rebuilding what had been destroyed — the restoration works as a public testimony.
  37. Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 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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