Then you will know that I, the Lord, have heard all the insults you spoke against the mountains of Israel, saying, "They are desolate, they have been given to us for food."

This is what the sovereign Lord says: While the whole earth rejoices, I will turn you into a desolation.

As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so will I deal with you -- you will be desolate, Mount Seir, and all of Edom -- all of it! Then they will know that I am the Lord.'"

So this is what the sovereign Lord says: I vow that the nations around you will endure insults as well.

"'But you, mountains of Israel, will grow your branches, and bear your fruit for my people Israel; for they will arrive soon.

For indeed, I am on your side; I will turn to you, and you will be plowed and planted.

I will multiply your people -- the whole house of Israel, all of it. The cities will be populated and the ruins rebuilt.

I will increase the number of people and animals on you; they will increase and be fruitful. I will cause you to be inhabited as in ancient times, and will do more good for you than at the beginning of your history. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

I will lead people, my people Israel, across you; they will possess you and you will become their inheritance. No longer will you bereave them of their children.

therefore you will no longer devour people and no longer bereave your nation of children, declares the sovereign Lord.

I will no longer subject you to the nations' insults; no longer will you bear the shame of the peoples, and no longer will you bereave your nation, declares the sovereign Lord.'"

I will magnify my great name that has been profaned among the nations, that you have profaned among them. The nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the sovereign Lord, when I magnify myself among you in their sight.

"'I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries; then I will bring you to your land.

I will sprinkle you with pure water and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols.

I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put my Spirit within you; I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes and carefully observe my regulations.

Then you will live in the land I gave to your fathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and multiply it; I will not bring a famine on you.

I will multiply the fruit of the trees and the produce of the fields, so that you will never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations.

Then you will remember your evil behavior and your deeds which were not good; you will loathe yourselves on account of your sins and your abominable deeds.

"'This is what the sovereign Lord says: In the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will populate the cities and the ruins will be rebuilt.

The desolate land will be plowed, instead of being desolate in the sight of everyone who passes by.

They will say, "This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; the ruined, desolate, and destroyed cities are now fortified and inhabited."

Then the nations which remain around you will know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruins and replanted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken -- and I will do it!'

"This is what the sovereign Lord says: I will allow the house of Israel to ask me to do this for them: I will multiply their people like sheep.

Like the sheep for offerings, like the sheep of Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so will the ruined cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord."

This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones: Look, I am about to infuse breath into you and you will live.

I will put tendons on you and muscles over you and will cover you with skin; I will put breath in you and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.'"

Therefore prophesy, and tell them, 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to open your graves and will raise you from your graves, my people. I will bring you to the land of Israel.

Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people.

I will place my breath in you and you will live; I will give you rest in your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord -- I have spoken and I will act, declares the Lord.'"

Join them as one stick; they will be as one in your hand.

When your people say to you, 'Will you not tell us what these things mean?'

tell them, 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to take the branch of Joseph which is in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I will place them on the stick of Judah, and make them into one stick -- they will be one in my hand.'

The sticks you write on will be in your hand in front of them.

Then tell them, 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to take the Israelites from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from round about and bring them to their land.

I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over them all. They will never again be two nations and never again be divided into two kingdoms.

They will not defile themselves with their idols, their detestable things, and all their rebellious deeds. I will save them from all their unfaithfulness by which they sinned. I will purify them; they will become my people and I will become their God.

"'My servant David will be king over them; there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow my regulations and carefully observe my statutes.

They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; they will live in it -- they and their children and their grandchildren forever. David my servant will be prince over them forever.

I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be a perpetual covenant with them. I will establish them, increase their numbers, and place my sanctuary among them forever.

My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Then, when my sanctuary is among them forever, the nations will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel.'"

I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and bring you out with all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them fully armed, a great company with shields of different types, all of them armed with swords.

After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come to a land restored from the ravages of war, with many peoples gathered on the mountains of Israel that had long been in ruins. Its people were brought out from the peoples, and all of them will be living securely.

You will advance; you will come like a storm. You will be like a cloud covering the earth, you, all your troops, and the many other peoples with you.

"'This is what the sovereign Lord says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan.

You will say, "I will invade a land of unwalled towns; I will advance against those living quietly in security -- all of them living without walls and barred gates --

Sheba and Dedan and the traders of Tarshish with all its young warriors will say to you, "Have you come to loot? Have you assembled your armies to plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to haul away a great amount of spoils?"'

"Therefore, prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog: 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: On that day when my people Israel are living securely, you will take notice

You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud covering the earth. In the latter days I will bring you against my land so that the nations may acknowledge me, when before their eyes I magnify myself through you, O Gog.

On that day, when Gog invades the land of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord, my rage will mount up in my anger.

In my zeal, in the fire of my fury, I declare that on that day there will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.

The fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the wild beasts, all the things that creep on the ground, and all people who live on the face of the earth will shake at my presence. The mountains will topple, the cliffs will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground.

I will call for a sword to attack Gog on all my mountains, declares the sovereign Lord; every man's sword will be against his brother.

I will judge him with plague and bloodshed. I will rain down on him, his troops and the many peoples who are with him a torrential downpour, hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

I will exalt and magnify myself; I will reveal myself before many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.'

I will turn you around and drag you along; I will lead you up from the remotest parts of the north and bring you against the mountains of Israel.

I will knock your bow out of your left hand and make your arrows fall from your right hand.

You will fall dead on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the people who are with you. I give you as food to every kind of bird and every wild beast.

You will fall dead in the open field; for I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord.

I will send fire on Magog and those who live securely in the coastlands; then they will know that I am the Lord.

"'I will make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

Realize that it is coming and it will be done, declares the sovereign Lord. It is the day I have spoken about.

"'Then those who live in the cities of Israel will go out and use the weapons for kindling -- the shields, bows and arrows, war clubs and spears -- they will burn them for seven years.

They will not need to take wood from the field or cut down trees from the forests, because they will make fires with the weapons. They will take the loot from those who looted them and seize the plunder of those who plundered them, declares the sovereign Lord.

"'On that day I will assign Gog a grave in Israel. It will be the valley of those who travel east of the sea; it will block the way of the travelers. There they will bury Gog and all his horde; they will call it the valley of Hamon-Gog.

For seven months Israel will bury them, in order to cleanse the land.

All the people of the land will bury them, and it will be a memorial for them on the day I magnify myself, declares the sovereign Lord.

They will designate men to scout continually through the land, burying those who remain on the surface of the ground, in order to cleanse it. They will search for seven full months.

When the scouts survey the land and see a human bone, they will place a sign by it, until those assigned to burial duty have buried it in the valley of Hamon-Gog.

(A city by the name of Hamonah will also be there.) They will cleanse the land.'

"As for you, son of man, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Tell every kind of bird and every wild beast: 'Assemble and come! Gather from all around to my slaughter which I am going to make for you, a great slaughter on the mountains of Israel! You will eat flesh and drink blood.

You will eat the flesh of warriors and drink the blood of the princes of the earth -- the rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fattened animals of Bashan.

You will eat fat until you are full, and drink blood until you are drunk, at my slaughter which I have made for you.

You will fill up at my table with horses and charioteers, with warriors and all the soldiers,' declares the sovereign Lord.

"I will display my majesty among the nations. All the nations will witness the judgment I have executed, and the power I have exhibited among them.

Then the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward.

The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile due to their iniquity, for they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies; all of them died by the sword.

"Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob, and I will have mercy on the entire house of Israel. I will be zealous for my holy name.

They will bear their shame for all their unfaithful acts against me, when they live securely on their land with no one to make them afraid.

When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will magnify myself among them in the sight of many nations.

Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations, and then gathered them into their own land. I will not leave any of them in exile any longer.

I will no longer hide my face from them, when I pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord."

Then he said to me, "The north chambers and the south chambers which face the courtyard are holy chambers where the priests who approach the Lord will eat the most holy offerings. There they will place the most holy offerings -- the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, because the place is holy.

When the priests enter, then they will not go out from the sanctuary to the outer court without taking off their garments in which they minister, for these are holy; they will put on other garments, then they will go near the places where the people are."

He said to me: "Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet, where I will live among the people of Israel forever. The house of Israel will no longer profane my holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their spiritual prostitution or by the pillars of their kings set up when they die.

Now they must put away their spiritual prostitution and the pillars of their kings far from me, and then I will live among them forever.

"As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, so that they will be ashamed of their sins and measure the pattern.

"This is the law of the temple: The entire area on top of the mountain all around will be most holy. Indeed, this is the law of the temple.

you will give a young bull for a sin offering to the Levitical priests who are descended from Zadok, who approach me to minister to me, declares the sovereign Lord.

You will take some of its blood, and place it on the four horns of the altar, on the four corners of the ledge, and on the border all around; you will cleanse it and make atonement for it.

You will also take the bull for the sin offering, and it will be burned in the appointed place in the temple, outside the sanctuary.

"On the second day, you will offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering. They will purify the altar just as they purified it with the bull.

When you have finished purifying it, you will offer an unblemished young bull and an unblemished ram from the flock.

You will present them before the Lord, and the priests will scatter salt on them and offer them up as a burnt offering to the Lord.

"For seven days you will provide every day a goat for a sin offering; a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without blemish, will be provided.

For seven days they will make atonement for the altar and cleanse it, so they will consecrate it.

When the prescribed period is over, on the eighth day and thereafter the priests will offer up on the altar your burnt offerings and your peace offerings; I will accept you, declares the sovereign Lord."

The Lord said to me: "This gate will be shut; it will not be opened, and no one will enter by it. For the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it will remain shut.