Bible Strands
Ezekiel 36:11
I will fill you with people and animals, and they will multiply and be fruitful. I will make you as inhabited as you once were, and I will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses the desolate land of Israel, speaking directly to its mountains and ruins. The declaration occurs within a prophetic oracle detailing the physical and demographic restoration of the territory.
The words — The text employs וְ/הִרְבֵּיתִ֧י (hir.bei.Ti), meaning "I will multiply," and וּ/פָר֑וּ (fa.Ru), meaning "they will be fruitful," to describe the expansion of inhabitants and livestock. It also uses וְ/הוֹשַׁבְתּ֨י (ho.shav.Ti), meaning "I will cause to dwell," to mark the reoccupation of previously abandoned cities.
The thread — This promise of repopulation and agricultural return aligns with Jeremiah 33:12, which foretells pastures and flocks in the formerly desolate cities, and mirrors Micah 7:14, which pictures the restored people living as a protected flock in woodland pastures.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that territorial restoration is not merely political but divine action, culminating in the explicit declaration that the people will know the speaker is the LORD. It requires the reader to accept that demographic and agricultural renewal serve as visible proof of divine sovereignty.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 33:12 This is what the LORD of Hosts says: In this desolate place, without man or beast, and in all its cities, there will once more be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks.
- Jeremiah 23:5 Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign wisely as King and will administer justice and righteousness in the land.
- Micah 7:14 Shepherd with Your staff Your people, the flock of Your inheritance. They live alone in a woodland, surrounded by pastures. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
- Jeremiah 31:27 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and of beast.
- Ezekiel 37:13 Then you, My people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.
- Job 42:12 So the LORD blessed Job’s latter days more than his first. He owned 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.
- Jeremiah 30:18 This is what the LORD says: “I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on his dwellings. And the city will be rebuilt on her own ruins, and the palace will stand in its rightful place.
- Ezekiel 16:55 And your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state. You and your daughters will also return to your former state.
- Hosea 2:20 And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.”
- Amos 9:15 I will firmly plant them in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God.