Yehezkiel 11:17-21

11:17 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: When I regather you from the peoples and assemble you from the lands where you have been dispersed, I will give you back the country of Israel.’

11:18 “When they return to it, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. 11:19 I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them; ¹  I will remove the hearts of stone from their bodies ²  and I will give them tender hearts, ³  11:20 so that they may follow my statutes and observe my regulations and carry them out. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. ⁴  11:21 But those whose hearts are devoted to detestable things and abominations, I hereby repay them for what they have done, ⁵  says the sovereign Lord.”

Yehezkiel 20:34-38

20:34 I will bring you out from the nations, and will gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a powerful hand and an outstretched arm and with an outpouring of rage! 20:35 I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. 20:36 Just 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 sovereign Lord. 20:37 I will make you pass under ⁶  the shepherd’s staff, ⁷  and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. 20:38 I will eliminate from among you the rebels and those who revolt ⁸  against me. I will bring them out from the land where they have been residing, but they will not come to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

[11:19]  ¹ tc The MT reads “you”; many Hebrew mss along with the LXX and other ancient versions read “within them.”

[11:19]  ² tn Heb “their flesh.”

[11:19]  ³ tn Heb “heart of flesh.”

[11:20]  ⁴ sn The expression They will be my people, and I will be their God occurs as a promise to Abraham (Gen 17:8), Moses (Exod 6:7), and the nation (Exod 29:45).

[11:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “their way on their head I have placed.”

[20:37]  ⁶ tn This is the same Hebrew verb used to describe the passing of the children through the fire.

[20:37]  ⁷ sn The metaphor may be based in Lev 27:32 (see also Jer 33:13; Matt 25:32-33). A shepherd would count his sheep as they passed beneath his staff.

[20:38]  ⁸ tn See the note at 2:3.