40. For in the mountain of my holiness, in the high mountain of Israel, said the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel serve me, all of them in the land; there will I be pleased with them, and there will I require your offerings and the firstfruits of your gifts with all your sacred things.
41. I will accept you with your sweet savour when I have brought you out from among the peoples and gathered you out of the countries in which ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you in the eyes of the Gentiles.
42. And ye shall know that I am the Lord when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the land for which I lifted up my hand to give it to your fathers.
43. And there ye shall remember your ways and all your doings, in which ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.
44. And ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have intervened with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, said the Lord GOD.
45. Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
46. Son of man, set thy face toward the south and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field;
47. and thou shalt say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the Lord. Thus hath the Lord GOD said: Behold, I kindle a fire in thee, which shall devour every green tree in thee and every dry tree; the flame of the fire shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
48. And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.
49. Then I said, Ah Lord GOD! they say of me, Does he not speak parables?