The restoration of Israel, not for their merits, but by God’s special
grace. Christ’s baptism.
36:1. And thou son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and
say: Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord:
36:2. Thus saith the Lord God: Because the enemy hath said of you: Aha,
the everlasting heights are given to us for an inheritance.
36:3. Therefore prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Because you
have been desolate, and trodden under foot on every side, and made an
inheritance to the rest of the nations, and are become the subject of
the talk, and the reproach of the people:
36:4. Therefore, 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
brooks, and to the valleys, and to desolate places, and ruinous walls,
and to the cities that are forsaken, that are spoiled, and derided by
the rest of the nations round about.
36:5. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: In the fire of my zeal I have
spoken of the rest of the nations, and of all Edom, who have taken my
land to themselves, for an inheritance with joy, and with all the
heart, and with the mind: and have cast it out to lay it waste.
36:6. Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say to the
mountains, and to the hills, to the ridges, and to the valleys: Thus
saith the Lord God: Behold I have spoken in my zeal, and in my
indignation, because you have borne the shame of the Gentiles.
36:7. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: I have lifted up my hand, that
the Gentiles who are round about you, shall themselves bear their
shame.
36:8. But as for you, O mountains of Israel, shoot ye forth your
branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel: for they are at
hand to come.
36:9. For lo I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be
ploughed and sown.
36:10. And I will multiply men upon you, and all the house of Israel:
and the cities shall be inhabited, and the ruinous places shall be
repaired.
36:11. And I will make you abound with men and with beasts: and they
shall be multiplied, and increased: and I will settle you as from the
beginning, and will give you greater gifts, than you had from the
beginning: and you shall know that I am the Lord.
36:12. And I will bring men upon you, my people Israel, and they shall
possess thee for their inheritance: and thou shalt be their
inheritance, and shalt no more henceforth be without them.
36:13. Thus saith the Lord God: Because they say of you: Thou art a
devourer of men, and one that suffocatest thy nation:
36:14. Therefore thou shalt devour men no more nor destroy thy nation
any more, saith the Lord God.
36:15. Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the
nations any more, nor shalt thou bear the reproach of the people, nor
lose thy nation any more, saith the Lord God.
Nor lose thy nation any more.... This whole promise principally relates
to the church of Christ, and God’s perpetual protection of her: for as
to the carnal Jews, they have been removed out of their land these
sixteen hundred years.
36:16. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
36:17. Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land,
they defiled it with their ways, and with their doings: their way was
before me like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman.
36:18. And I poured out my indignation upon them for the blood which
they had shed upon the land, and with their idols they defiled it.
36:19. And I scattered them among the nations, and they are dispersed
through the countries: I have judged them according to their ways, and
their devices.
36:20. And when they entered among the nations whither they went, they
profaned my holy name, when it was said of them: This is the people of
the Lord, and they are come forth out of his land.
36:21. And I have regarded my own holy name, which the house of Israel
hath profaned among the nations to which they went in.
36:22. Therefore thou shalt say to the house of Israel: Thus saith the
Lord God: It is not for your sake that I will do this, O house of
Israel, but for my holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the
nations whither you went.
36:23. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the
Gentiles, which you have profaned in the midst of them: that the
Gentiles may know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord of hosts, when I
shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
36:24. For I will take you from among the Gentiles, and will gather you
together out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own
land.
36:25. And I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed
from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse you from all your idols.
36:26. And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within
you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will
give you a heart of flesh.
36:27. And I will put my spirit in the midst of you: and I will cause
you to walk in my commandments, and to keep my judgments, and do them.
36:28. And you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers,
and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
36:29. And I will save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call
for corn, and will multiply it, and will lay no famine upon you.
36:30. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of
the field, that you bear no more the reproach of famine among the
nations.
36:31. And you shall remember your wicked ways, and your doings that
were not good: and your iniquities, and your wicked deeds shall
displease you.
36:32. It is not for your sakes that I will do this, saith the Lord
God, be it known to you: be confounded, and ashamed at your own ways, O
house of Israel.
36:33. Thus saith the Lord God: In the day that I shall cleanse you
from all your iniquities, and shall cause the cities to be inhabited,
and shall repair the ruinous places,
36:34. And the desolate land shall be tilled, which before was waste in
the sight of all that passed by,
36:35. They shall say: This land that was untilled is become as a
garden of pleasure: and the cities that were abandoned, and desolate,
and destroyed, are peopled and fenced.
36:36. And the nations, that shall be left round about you, shall know
that I the Lord have built up what was destroyed, and planted what was
desolate, that I the Lord have spoken and done it.
36:37. Thus saith the Lord God: Moreover in this shall the house of
Israel find me, that I will do it for them: I will multiply them as a
flock of men,
36:38. As a holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts:
so shall the waste cities be full of flocks of men: and they shall know
that I am the Lord.