[36:16] The Lord spoke to me.
[36:17] “Mortal man,” he said, “when the Israelites were living in their land, they defiled it by the way they lived and acted. I regarded their behavior as being as ritually unclean as a woman is during her monthly period.
[36:18] I let them feel the force of my anger because of the murders they had committed in the land and because of the idols by which they had defiled it.
[36:19] I condemned them for the way they lived and acted, and I scattered them through foreign countries.
[36:20] Wherever they went, they brought disgrace on my holy name, because people would say, ‘These are the people of the Lord, but they had to leave his land.’
[36:21] That made me concerned for my holy name, since the Israelites brought disgrace on it everywhere they went.
[36:22] “Now then, give the Israelites the message that I, the Sovereign Lord, have for them: What I am going to do is not for the sake of you Israelites, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have disgraced in every country where you have gone.
[36:23] When I demonstrate to the nations the holiness of my great name—the name you disgraced among them—then they will know that I am the Lord. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. I will use you to show the nations that I am holy.
[36:24] I will take you from every nation and country and bring you back to your own land.
[36:25] I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you.
[36:26] I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart.
[36:27] I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you.
[36:28] Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God.
[36:29] I will save you from everything that defiles you. I will command the grain to be plentiful, so that you will not have any more famines.
[36:30] I will increase the yield of your fruit trees and your fields, so that there will be no more famines to disgrace you among the nations.
[36:31] You will remember your evil conduct and the wrongs that you committed, and you will be disgusted with yourselves because of your sins and your iniquities.
[36:32] Israel, I want you to know that I am not doing all this for your sake. I want you to feel the shame and disgrace of what you are doing. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.”
[36:33] The Sovereign Lord says, “When I make you clean from all your sins, I will let you live in your cities again and let you rebuild the ruins.
[36:34] Everyone who used to walk by your fields saw how overgrown and wild they were, but I will let you farm them again.
[36:35] Everyone will talk about how this land, which was once a wilderness, has become like the Garden of Eden, and how the cities which were torn down, looted, and left in ruins, are now inhabited and fortified.
[36:36] Then the neighboring nations that have survived will know that I, the Lord, rebuild ruined cities and replant waste fields. I, the Lord, have promised that I would do this—and I will.”
[36:37] The Sovereign Lord says, “I will once again let the Israelites ask me for help, and I will let them increase in numbers like a flock of sheep.
[36:38] The cities that are now in ruins will then be as full of people as Jerusalem was once full of the sheep which were offered as sacrifices at a festival. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”