Ezekiel 20:33-49

English Standard Version

The Lord Will Restore Israel

³³^(A)“As I live, declares the Lord God, ^(B)surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and ^(C)with wrath poured out I will be king over you. ³⁴^(D)I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out. ³⁵^(E)And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, ^(F)and there I will enter into judgment with you ^(G)face to face. ³⁶^(H)As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord God. ³⁷I will make you ^(I)pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. ³⁸^(J)I will purge out the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against me. ^(K)I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, ^(L)but they shall not enter the land of Israel. ^(M)Then you will know that I am the Lord.

³⁹“As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord God: ^(N)Go serve every one of you his idols, now and hereafter, if you will not listen to me; ^(O)but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and your idols.

⁴⁰^(P)“For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord God, there ^(Q)all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. ^(R)There I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings. ⁴¹As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when ^(S)I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And ^(T)I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. ⁴²^(U)And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that ^(V)I swore to give to your fathers. ⁴³^(W)And there you shall remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, ^(X)and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed. ⁴⁴And you shall know that I am the Lord, ^(Y)when I deal with you for my name's sake, ^(Z)not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord God.”

⁴⁵^[a] And the word of the Lord came to me: ⁴⁶^(AA)“Son of man, ^(AB)set your face toward the southland;^[b] ^(AC)preach against the south, and prophesy against the forest land in the Negeb. ⁴⁷Say to the forest of the Negeb, Hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, Behold, ^(AD)I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every ^(AE)green tree in you and every ^(AF)dry tree. The blazing flame shall not be quenched, and ^(AG)all faces from south to north shall be scorched by it. ⁴⁸^(AH)All flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.” ⁴⁹Then I said, ^(AI)“Ah, Lord God! They are saying of me, ^(AJ)‘Is he not a maker of parables?’”