40. on my holy mountain, on the exalted mountain of Israel, says the Lord God, there all the house of Israel shall serve me; all of them, I say, in the land in which they shall please me, and there I will require your first-fruits, and the foremost of your tithes, with all your sanctifications.
41. I will receive from you a fragrance of sweetness, when I will have led you away from the peoples, and gathered you from the lands into which you were dispersed. And I will be sanctified in you before the eyes of the nations.
42. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I will have led you into the land of Israel, into the land about which I lifted up my hand, so that I would give it to your fathers.
43. And there you shall remember your ways and all your wickedness, by which you have been defiled. And you will be displeased with yourselves in your own sight, over all your evil deeds which you did.
44. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I will have acted well toward you for the sake of my name, and not according to your evil ways, nor according to your very great wickedness, O house of Israel, says the Lord God."
45. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
46. "Son of man, set your face against the way of the south, and pour in drops toward Africa, and prophesy against the forest of the field of the meridian.
47. And you shall say to the meridian forest: Listen to the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and I will burn up within you every green tree and every dry tree. The flame of the kindling will not be extinguished. And every face will be burned up within it, from the south, even to the north.
48. And all flesh will see that I, the Lord, have kindled it, and that it will not be extinguished."
49. And I said: "Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God! They are saying about me: 'Does this man not speak except through parables?' "