Bible Strands
Ezekiel 36:12
Yes, I will cause My people Israel to walk upon you; they will possess you, and you will be their inheritance, and you will no longer deprive them of their children.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses the barren mountain of Israel, speaking directly to the land itself as a listener. This declaration immediately follows His promise to repopulate the territory and restore its agricultural prosperity.
The words — וְהוֹלַכְתִּי (ve./ho.lakh.Ti) translates literally as "and I will cause to walk," establishing divine agency over the people's return. וִירֵשׁוּךָ (vi./re.Shu./kha) means "and they will dispossess/possess you," indicating a permanent territorial claim.
The thread — The charge that the land "devours men" appears in Jeremiah 15:7 and Numbers 13:32, where the territory is blamed for destruction and barrenness. Jeremiah 32:44 contrasts this by describing the return of agricultural ownership and legal transactions in the restored land.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that territorial restoration depends entirely on divine action, not human merit. It requires the reader to accept that God's promise to reverse desolation is both factual and binding.
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
Yea, 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.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 15:7 I will scatter them with a winnowing fork at the gates of the land. I will bereave and destroy My people who have not turned from their ways.
- Numbers 13:32 So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature.
- Jeremiah 32:44 Fields will be purchased with silver, and deeds will be signed, sealed, and witnessed in the land of Benjamin, in the areas surrounding Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah—the cities of the hill country, the foothills, and the Negev—because I will restore them from captivity, declares the LORD.”
- Ezekiel 36:13 For this is what the Lord GOD says: Because people say to you, ‘You devour men and deprive your nation of its children,’
- Ezekiel 47:14 You are to divide it equally among them. Because I swore with an uplifted hand to give it to your forefathers, this land will fall to you as an inheritance.
- Obadiah 1:17 But on Mount Zion there will be deliverance, and it will be holy, and the house of Jacob will reclaim their possession.
- Jeremiah 32:15 For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”