What does Ezechiel Chapter 36 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Israel’s mountains receive restoration promises. Cleansing, a new heart and spirit accompany commanded conduct. Restored fields and cities serve recognition of the holy name.

Chapter breakdown

Ezechiel 36 speaks to Israel's mountains, which have been taken, wasted and subjected to neighboring reproach. Nations, particularly Edom, claimed the land with joy and hatred, casting it out to lay waste. The Lord's zeal and raised hand answer this shame with shame for the surrounding nations. Branches and fruit prepare for Israel, whose coming is at hand. Tilling, sowing, multiplied people and beasts, inhabited cities and repaired ruins accompany greater gifts than before. The land will no longer devour or suffocate its nation or bear reproach and loss. The edition separately interprets these promises principally through Christ's Church and makes a historically dated statement about carnal Jews being removed from the land for sixteen hundred years; that annotation is not a present-day chronology or a claim about modern sovereignty.

Israel's conduct defiled its land, compared in the text to the uncleanness of a menstruous woman. Bloodshed and idols brought wrath and scattering, with judgment according to ways and devices. Among nations, the Lord's name was profaned when people said his people had left his land. The passage does not explain this through an invented private belief that God lacked power. The Lord acts for his holy name rather than Israel's sake, gathering them into their land and pouring clean water upon them.

A new heart and spirit replace a stony heart with flesh; the Lord puts his spirit within them so they walk in commandments and keep judgments. They become his people and he their God. Saved from uncleanness, they receive corn, fruitful trees and fields without famine or its reproach. Remembered evil ways and wickedness bring displeasure, shame and confusion. This is again declared to be for his name rather than their sake.

Inhabited cities, repaired ruins and tilled waste resemble a garden of pleasure, with fenced cities where desolation stood. Nations left nearby recognize the Lord's rebuilding and planting: he has spoken and done it. Israel will find him to do these things, and people multiply like the holy flock in Jerusalem at solemn feasts. The comparison does not identify the restored land as the actual garden of Eden or supply an independent timetable of completed restoration.

The story inside

Opening: Israel’s mountains receive restoration promises. Development: Cleansing, a new heart and spirit accompany commanded conduct. Conclusion: Restored fields and cities serve recognition of the holy name.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Israel’s mountains receive restoration promises.
2
Cleansing, a new heart and spirit accompany commanded conduct.
3
Restored fields and cities serve recognition of the holy name.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 95216–95249
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.
Lines 95271–95296
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.
Lines 95313–95334
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.