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 Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

² I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

³ Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

⁴ We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.

⁵ For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;

⁶ that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,

⁷ that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments,

⁸ and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn't make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

⁹ The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

¹⁰ They didn't keep God's covenant, and refused to walk in his law.

¹¹ They forgot his doings, his wondrous works that he had shown them.

¹² He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³ He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.

¹⁴ In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.

¹⁵ He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

¹⁶ He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷ Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸ They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.

¹⁹ Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰ Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?"

²¹ Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,

²² because they didn't believe in God, and didn't trust in his salvation.

²³ Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.

²⁴ He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.

²⁵ Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.

²⁶ He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.

²⁷ He rained also flesh on them as the dust; winged birds as the sand of the seas.

²⁸ He let them fall in the midst of their camp, around their habitations.

²⁹ So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.

³⁰ They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,

³¹ when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of the fattest of them, and struck down the young men of Israel.

³² For all this they still sinned, and didn't believe in his wondrous works.

³³ Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

³⁴ When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.

³⁵ They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.

³⁶ But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.

³⁷ For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

³⁸ But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn't stir up all his wrath.

³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.

⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!

⁴¹ They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴² They didn't remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

⁴³ how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,

⁴⁴ he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.

⁴⁵ He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶ He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.

⁴⁸ He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹ He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.

⁵⁰ He made a path for his anger. He didn't spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,

⁵¹ and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵² But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³ He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴ He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

⁵⁵ He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶ Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn't keep his testimonies;

⁵⁷ but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.

⁵⁹ When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;

⁶⁰ So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹ and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary's hand.

⁶² He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.

⁶³ Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.

⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn't weep.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.

⁶⁶ He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷ Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸ But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹ He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.

⁷⁰ He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷¹ from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.

⁷² So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. A Psalm by Asaph.