Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for the sake of my reputation and not according to your wicked conduct and corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because all of you ¹  have become slag, look out! – I am about to gather you in the middle of Jerusalem. ² 

I will increase the number of people and animals on you; they will increase and be fruitful. ¹  I will cause you to be inhabited as in ancient times, and will do more good for you than at the beginning of your history. ²  Then you will know that I am the Lord.

I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and multiply it; I will not bring a famine on you.

“‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: In the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will populate the cities and the ruins will be rebuilt.

I will place my breath ¹  in you and you will live; I will give you rest in your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord – I have spoken and I will act, declares the Lord.’”

“I have chosen ¹  you alone from all the clans of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your sins.”

The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his own holy character: ¹  “Certainly the time is approaching ²  when you will be carried away ³  in baskets, ⁴  every last one of you ⁵  in fishermen’s pots. ⁶ 

“I destroyed your crops ¹  with blight and disease. Locusts kept ²  devouring your orchards, ³  vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

Seek good and not evil so you can live! Then the Lord, the God who commands armies, just might be with you, as you claim he is.

“Look! I am about to bring ¹  a nation against you, family ²  of Israel.” The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking. “They will oppress ³  you all the way from Lebo-Hamath ⁴  to the Stream of the Arabah.” ⁵ 

“You there! ¹  Flee from the northland!” says the Lord, “for like the four winds of heaven ²  I have scattered you,” says the Lord.

And it will come about that just as you (both Judah and Israel) were a curse to the nations, so I will save you and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid! Instead, be strong!’

I then said, “I will not shepherd you. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be eradicated, let it be eradicated. As for those who survive, let them eat each other’s flesh!”

“I have shown love to you,” says the Lord, but you say, “How have you shown love to us?” “Esau was Jacob’s brother,” the Lord explains, “yet I chose Jacob

I am about to discipline your children ¹  and will spread offal ²  on your faces, ³  the very offal produced at your festivals, and you will be carried away along with it.

“Therefore, I have caused you to be ignored and belittled before all people to the extent to which you are not following after me and are showing partiality in your ¹  instruction.”

One of you must go and get ¹  your brother, while ²  the rest of you remain in prison. ³  In this way your words may be tested to see if ⁴  you are telling the truth. ⁵  If not, then, as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!”

“Go and bring together ¹  the elders of Israel and tell them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, ²  appeared ³  to me – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – saying, “I have attended carefully ⁴  to you and to what has been done ⁵  to you in Egypt,

I will bring you to the land I swore to give ¹  to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob – and I will give it to you ²  as a possession. I am the Lord!’”