Chapter Thirty-Six

The Future Land of Israel

Turning now properly to the holy land, the Lord promises it recompense for all the shame caused by hostile neighboring peoples (verses 1–7), and the imminent return of its people, who will dwell on it blessed with fertility, in multitude and happiness, which will silence all slander against it among the gentiles (verses 13–15). In the attached separate discourse the reason and manner for the accomplishment of this restoration of the holy land is explained: for the glory of God’s name, for the removal of Israel from the holy land for the defilement of it and his captivity, the gentiles considered a weakness of Jehovah; therefore Israel must be, though not yet finally converted, returned to his land (verses 16–24); God will forgive him his sins and completely transform his heart and conduct, and thus shower him with blessings that Israel will feel sincere repentance for his former abominations and aversion to them (verses 25–32), thanks to which the holy land, so connected with the glory of God’s name in the eyes of the gentiles, will no longer be deprived of its population, but will be glorified by fertility and populousness (verses 33–38). – The discourse is marked by a particularly warm feeling toward the holy land, as if the latter was struck in its very heart by defilement and needs consolation. In tone in this respect the present chapter is the opposite of chapter VI. The prophecy to a considerable extent was fulfilled in the post-exilic Israel and the Palestine of that time, which achieved considerable well-being and wealth, especially in the Maccabean period. The prophecy of the spiritual transformation of Israel, though fulfilled to a certain extent in post-exilic Judaism (faithfulness to one’s religion to martyrdom for it), but fully – only in the Christian rebirth of humanity.

Ezekiel 36:1. And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say: mountains of Israel! hear the word of the Lord. “And you, son of man” – Ezek 4:1. – “Mountains of Israel” – Ezek 6:2. As there, the reference is chiefly to Judea, as the always center of the life of the chosen people and in correspondence with the hilly Edom. In the post-exilic period even more than before, the life of Israel was concentrated in Judea.

Ezekiel 36:2. Thus says the Lord God: since the enemy says of you: “Aha! and the ancient heights have become our possession, “Enemy” – chiefly Edom and other neighbors. – “Aha!” – see the explanation Ezek 25:3; Greek and Vulgate “well done”, Slavonic “good.” – “The ancient heights.” Thus named the mountains of Israel because of the most ancient history connected with them (Smend); LXX: “eternal wilderness”, evidently reading “desolations” instead of “heights” and perhaps finding it unlikely in the mouth of the prophet sorrow over so hated by him “heights.” – “Have become our possession” – see the explanation Ezek 35:10.

Ezekiel 36:3. therefore prophesy, and say: Thus says the Lord God: yes, because they desolated you and swallowed you up on every side, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and became a byword and a taunt among the peoples – “Desolated” – conjectured after Vulgate translation of the Hebrew word, instead of which the LXX read “degraded”; Slavonic “destroyed” – a doublet. – “Swallowed you up” – Ezek 25:12. – “Rest of the nations”, literally “remainder of the nations”, those remaining in Palestine after the captivity of Israel; the Edomites chiefly are meant. – “Became a byword”, Slavonic more precisely: “and arose and became – a gloss or doublet – in the reproach of lips.”

Ezekiel 36:4. therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys, to the desolate ruins and the abandoned cities, which became a prey and a derision to the rest of the surrounding nations; “Mountains...” – see the explanation Ezek 6:3; “ravines” – Slavonic here more precisely “by streams,” – wadis; Slavonic “and meadows” – a doublet. – “Desolate ruins and abandoned cities”, LXX “and desolated and ruined and abandoned cities” – apparently different degrees of devastation of cities. – “Prey and derision” – not parallel concepts, but corresponding to the ideas in verses 3 and 5.

Ezekiel 36:5. therefore thus says the Lord God: in the fire of My jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who appointed My land to themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, to make it a prey to themselves. “In the fire of My jealousy” – fierce anger. – “Edom” – the most guilty among the peoples in this matter. – “Wholehearted” – not in the LXX. – “With utter contempt.” LXX “having dishonored (αφασαντες) soul”, valuing human life at nothing. – “To make it a prey to themselves” – presumed translation of an obscure Hebrew expression, which rather (Vulgate) means: “expelling them (inhabitants from it?) for plunder”; LXX “which to destroy by ravaging.” “Recall that Edom was partly, to the west of the Arabah, a very poor, vegetation-less country; the southern meadows of Judea were very opportune for him” (Kraetzschmar).

Ezekiel 36:6. Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel and say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: Thus says the Lord God: behold, I have spoken in My jealousy and in My fury, because you bear the reproach of the nations. Ezekiel 36:7. Therefore thus says the Lord God: I have lifted up My hand with an oath that the nations round about you shall themselves bear their shame. Since Israel (and with Israel God Himself, hence the oath) suffered shame and mockery from the gentiles, the same must happen to the latter: the fate which they prepared for Israel will befall them.

Ezekiel 36:8. But you, mountains of Israel, put forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel; for they will soon come. The trees will be in full leaf and fruitful, and with their fruits the people will benefit, not the gentiles as before, but Israel. It is meant not only tree fruits, but also grain, verse 9, Ezek 24:17. – “For they will soon come.” The return from captivity is near, and with it the accomplishment (at least partial) of all the gladdening predictions for the holy land. Remarkable is the prophet’s confidence that his predictions refer not to the distant future and that the change of things is at hand. The holy land is already ready for the arrival of the returning rightful owners. But the LXX somewhat weakens the thought: “for they hope to come”, Vulgate: “for it is near, that it may come”, that is, the accomplishment of what is predicted is near; so also the Targum.

Ezekiel 36:9. For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you will be tilled and sown. “I will turn to you” with blessing, and not as Ezek 5:8 and similar. – “You will be tilled and sown.” In Slavonic “and you will till and sow”, erroneously put in the active voice, perhaps because in Greek the second verb is in future II, not having the characteristic for passive middle θ: κατερρασθησεσθσε και σπαρησεσθε.

Ezekiel 36:10. And I will multiply people upon you, the whole house of Israel, the whole; and the cities will be inhabited and the ruins will be rebuilt. Besides fertility in gardens and fields, the land is promised that embellishment and mercy which comes from dense population. – “The whole house of Israel, the whole”, Judah and Ephraim (Ezek 20:40 and following). “The whole” LXX: “to the end”, Vulgate omits. – “The cities will be inhabited” – the surviving ones. “And the ruins will be rebuilt.” Slavonic “the wildernesses will be fenced” an inaccurate translation of Greek: και η ηρημωνενη οικοδομηθη σετον – “the desolate (country) will be built up.”

Ezekiel 36:11. And I will multiply upon you people and beasts; and they will increase and be fruitful. And I will cause the towns to be inhabited as in the former times, and I will do better to you than in your former times, and you will know that I am the Lord. “Upon you” – on the mountains of Israel, in Palestine. – “And I will do better to you than in your former times.” As to Job. On post-exilic Judaism it was barely fulfilled. But LXX: “and I will do good to you (Israel), as in your former times.”

Ezekiel 36:12. And I will cause people to walk upon you, even My people Israel; and they will possess you, and you will be their inheritance and no more bereave them of children. Ezekiel 36:13. Thus says the Lord God: since people say of you: “You are a land that devours its inhabitants and bereaves your nation of children”: Ezekiel 36:14. you will not devour people anymore, and no more will you bereave your nation of children, says the Lord God. “You” – an unexpected change from plural number (“mountains”) to singular (“land”) without a vocative. – “No more bereave them of children” (LXX: “and Israel will not add, that is, to that childlessness from them” – from the mountains, the land). According to some, the prophet has in mind the strategic position of Palestine (between the conquering monarchies: East and West) and the defenselessness that hindered the growth of its population; according to others – the frequent famines in it (verse 30) or unhealthy soil conditions (2 Sam 2:19). The reason for such unfavorable conditions of life in the Promised Land, according to the prophet, lay not in its natural properties, but in God’s will, in God’s intention by all sorts of trials to correct His people. – “Not devour people and nation.” Besides what is listed, wild beasts may be meant: see the explanation Ezek 5:17; cf. Ezek 19:3.

Ezekiel 36:15. And you will no longer hear the reproach of the nations, and the shame of the peoples you will bear no more, nor will you bereave your nation of children any more, says the Lord God. “Nor will you bereave your nation of children” – a repetition from verses 13 and 14; not in Vatican and many other manuscripts.

Ezekiel 36:17. son of man! when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their conduct and their deeds; their way before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman during her menstrual period. “Their conduct and their deeds.” As verse 18 shows, by the first may be meant moral deeds, by the second religious; therefore the LXX: “by their way and by their idols and by their uncleannesses.” – “Like the uncleanness of a woman during her menstrual period.” So great is this natural uncleanness then – Ezek 18:6; cf. Lev 15:19; Isa 64:6.

Ezekiel 36:18. And I poured out My wrath upon them for the blood which they had spilled upon the land, and for the idols with which they had defiled it. Two types of sins are indicated: moral and religious. “For the blood which they had spilled” – violence and actual murders, perhaps among other things unjust death sentences; see the explanation Ezek 9:9. From here (inclusive) to the end of the verse – not in Vatican and many other manuscripts.

Ezekiel 36:19. And I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the lands; I judged them according to their ways and their deeds. Ezek 22:15, see the explanation Ezek 5:5.

Ezekiel 36:20. And when they came to the nations where they went, they profaned My holy name, because it was said of them: “These are the people of the Lord, and yet they had to leave His land. “To the nations” – the diverse population of the Assyrian and Babylonian monarchy. – “They profaned My holy name”, giving the impression of God’s powerlessness, which is said further, – as well as by their wickedness. – “These are the people of the Lord and they went out from His land.” Having only national gods, the gentiles could regard Jehovah only as a national god of the Hebrews, and they explained the unhappy fate of Israel, his captivity, only by the weakness of Jehovah, the victory over Him of their own gods.

Ezekiel 36:21. But I had regard for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they came. “But I had regard for My holy name...” From the glory of God’s name, from the correctness of God’s knowledge depends, and especially depended then, the fate of all humanity on earth. LXX: “and I spared them for the sake of My holy name”; but in Hebrew it is stronger; and the Vulgate “spared My name.” A bitter lamentation.

Ezekiel 36:22. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am acting, but for the sake of My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. “It is not for your sake that I am acting.” Israel did not deserve any mercy from God.

Ezekiel 36:23. And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, among which you have profaned it; and the nations will know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when I manifest My holiness before their eyes. “When I manifest My holiness before their eyes.” It is meant chiefly, if not exclusively, the glorious return of the Jews from captivity, destined to take place before the eyes of the gentiles; by this return will be restored the honor of the defamed by calamity of Israel the name of God (verse 20).

Ezekiel 36:24. And I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. Cf. Ezek 11:17. There is no mention of the intermediate “judgment in the wilderness of the peoples” Ezek 20:35 and following, because the discourse is only about Israel’s salvation from the hand of the gentiles.

Ezekiel 36:25. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. Sprinkling with water was taken from washing, which was a very ancient rite that preceded all worship (Gen 35:2; Exod 30:17-21). Targum: “I will forgive you your sins”, as they cleanse with the water of cleansing and the ashes of the heifer offered for sin. – “Clean” indicates the cleansing water in distinction from irrigation water. A very clear foreindication of the sacrament of baptism. – “From all your idols I will cleanse you.” Was fulfilled both in post-exilic Judaism, though only Christianity fully cleansed the human heart from everything pagan.

Ezekiel 36:26. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. The promise of Ezek 11:19-20 is renewed; see there “A new heart”, receptive to all that is divine. – “A new spirit”, namely the Spirit of God, as will be explained in the following verse. This is wrought in Christianity by the Holy Spirit, who is imparted to believers only after baptism; cf. verse 25.

Ezekiel 36:27. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to observe My ordinances. “My Spirit”, through which alone is possible a life fully in accordance with God’s will. The promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit, though less clear than in Joel. “In My statutes and My ordinances...” see the explanation Ezek 5:6.

Ezekiel 36:28. And you will live in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you will be My people, and I will be your God. Only under such a condition is it possible for Israel to live in the holy land (Lev 25:18-19; Deut 5:16) and the restoration of the covenantal relations with God (see the explanation Ezek 11:20). “I”, Hebrew anokhi, the long form instead of ani – the only time in Ezekiel, whereas ani occurs 138 times, because of which the entire verse was considered a gloss from Jer 30:22, but the case can be explained by the fact that from Hos 1:9 such a form of the pronoun became predominant in this formula.

Ezekiel 36:29. And I will save you from all your uncleannesses; and I will summon the grain and make it abundant, and I will not bring famine upon you. The consequence of cleansing from sins (“uncleannesses” – it is meant chiefly idolatry, as the chief sin and source of others) will be the return to the land of God’s blessing. – “I will summon the grain.” Plants, like all inanimate nature, obey the word of God (cf. Ps 104:16), which alone is enough for them to grow.

Ezekiel 36:30. And I will make the fruit on the trees and the produce of the field abundant, so that you will not again receive famine’s reproach among the nations. Not only will grain be multiplied, but other useful plants – tree fruits, grasses, vegetables. “Reproach...from famine”, Slavonic “reproaches of hunger.” Famine is a shame for a country because it is a sign of God’s anger, when God deprives the country of His blessing.

Ezekiel 36:31. Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good; and you will feel disgust at yourselves because of your iniquities and your abominations. “Ways” – conduct, direction; “deeds” – Slavonic “undertakings” – separate deeds. Undeserved divine blessing “will arouse in Israel a repentance which the fear of the law could not produce in him” (Tholuck).

Ezekiel 36:32. Not for your sake do I this, says the Lord God, be it known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel. See verse Ezek 36:22.

Ezekiel 36:33. Thus says the Lord God: on the day when I cleanse you from all your iniquities, and cause the cities to be inhabited, and the ruins to be rebuilt, Ezekiel 36:34. the land that was desolate will be tilled, being desolate in the sight of every passerby, The enumeration of God’s blessings on the land is given again, but now aims at depicting the moral effect of them on the gentiles, who, seeing them, receive a completely different understanding of the God of Israel. – “Every passerby” – an accidental traveler, who is possible only in a depopulated land.

Ezekiel 36:35. and they will say: “This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited. “They will say” chiefly travelers, who had seen the land desolate before (verse 34), and then the whole world will be astonished by such a change. – “Like the garden of Eden” – the archetype of fertility. An important promise of paradisiacal fertility in the future for the earth. – “Fortified and inhabited”, Slavonic more precisely “the ramparts were strengthened and stood”, enclosed with walls, which then constituted the distinction of a city from a village and which all cities, even Jerusalem, lost during the devastation of the country.

Ezekiel 36:36. And the nations that remain round about you shall know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. “The swift change of things will at once bring about a complete change in the universal opinion of Jehovah” (Bertholet). – “The nations that remain round about you” – and of which, after the judgments of chapter XXV and following chapters, there will be but few; perhaps the immediate neighbors of Israel are meant: Edomites, Moabites, etc. – “I the Lord have spoken and I will do it.” God always fulfills His promises because His word is infallible.

Ezekiel 36:37. Thus says the Lord God: I will yet be entreated by the house of Israel to do this for them; I will increase their population like a flock. “Thus says the Lord” indicates an important addition to the discourse. Indeed, the promise given here to Israel of its large multiplication was especially important for the then Israel, so destroyed by recent wars and scattered everywhere, numbered in Babylon near the prophet, perhaps, only in thousands (cf. the explanation Ezek 47:22). – “I will yet be entreated.” LXX and Vulgate “I will yet be found”; Hebrew verb darash permits translation: “I will be entreated.” – “Increase their population like a flock”, Slavonic more precisely “as if sheep”, distinguished by special fertility, though here a different thought is meant, see verse 38. Targum: “I will multiply them with people and enrich with flocks.”

Ezekiel 36:38. Like the flocks of holy sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during its feasts, so the ruined cities will be filled with human flocks, and they shall know that I am the Lord. A comparison, particularly natural for a former priest who may have often rejoiced over whole herds of sacrificial animals; cf. 1 Chr 29:21; 2 Chr 7:4; Josephus De bel. Iud. 6:9, 3. The comparison is natural also following the images of chapter XXXIV. Chiefly the future numerous gatherings of the people in the temple are meant. – “Sacrificial sheep” – the Slavonic is more precise and stronger: “sheep of Jerusalem.” Targ. “like a holy people, a purified people, which comes to Jerusalem at the time of the Passover festival.”