¹ Also thou son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD:

² Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the enemy had said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession:

³ Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession to the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people:

⁴ Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are around;

⁵ Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Edom, who have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.

⁶ Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen:

⁷ Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I have lifted up my hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame.

⁸ But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.

⁹ For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and ye shall be tilled and sown:

¹⁰ And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be built.

¹¹ And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old states, and will do better to you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

¹² Yes, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men.

¹³ Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they say to you, Thou land devourest men, and hast bereaved thy nations;

¹⁴ Therefore thou shalt devour men no more, neither bereave thy nations any more, saith the Lord GOD.

¹⁵ Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the heathen any more, neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people any more, neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more, saith the Lord GOD.

¹⁶ Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

¹⁷ Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.

¹⁸ Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols with which they had polluted it:

¹⁹ And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.

²⁰ And when they entered among the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.

²¹ But I had pity for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.

²² Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.

²³ And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the LORD GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

²⁴ For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

²⁵ Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

²⁶ A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

²⁷ And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

²⁸ And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

²⁹ I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.

³⁰ And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.

³¹ Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities, and for your abominations.

³² Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GOD, be it known to you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.

³³ Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be built.

³⁴ And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.

³⁵ And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fortified, and are inhabited.

³⁶ Then the heathen that are left around you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that which was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.

³⁷ Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.

³⁸ As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

⁹ And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their apostate heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes which go astray after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

¹ Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

² The same came to him by night, and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him."

³ Jesus answered him, "Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can't see the Kingdom of God."

⁴ Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born?"

⁵ Jesus answered, "Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can't enter into the Kingdom of God!

⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.

⁷ Don't marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born anew.'

⁸ The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don't know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

⁹ Nicodemus answered him, "How can these things be?"

¹⁰ Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and don't understand these things?

¹¹ Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don't receive our witness.

¹² If I told you earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

¹³ No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

¹⁴ As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

¹⁵ that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

¹⁷ For God didn't send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

¹⁸ He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn't believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

¹⁹ This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.

²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn't come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.

²¹ But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God."

²² After these things, Jesus came with his disciples into the land of Judea. He stayed there with them, and baptized.

²³ John also was baptizing in Enon near Salim, because there was much water there. They came, and were baptized.

²⁴ For John was not yet thrown into prison.

²⁵ There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John's disciples with some Jews about purification.

²⁶ They came to John, and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, the same baptizes, and everyone is coming to him."

²⁷ John answered, "A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven.

²⁸ You yourselves testify that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but, 'I have been sent before him.'

²⁹ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This, my joy, therefore is made full.

³⁰ He must increase, but I must decrease.

³¹ He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the Earth belongs to the Earth, and speaks of the Earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.

³² What he has seen and heard, of that he testifies; and no one receives his witness.

³³ He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true.

³⁴ For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for God gives the Spirit without measure.

³⁵ The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.

³⁶ One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys the Son won't see life, but the wrath of God remains on him."