8. But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My people Israel, for they are about to come.
9. For indeed I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown.
10. I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.
11. I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bear young; I will make you inhabited as in former times, and do better for you than at your beginnings. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.
12. Yes, I will cause men to walk on you, My people Israel; they shall take possession of you, and you shall be their inheritance; no more shall you bereave them of children.”
13. ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Because they say to you, ‘You devour men and bereave your nation of children,’
14. therefore you shall devour men no more, nor bereave your nation anymore,” says the Lord God.
15. “Nor will I let you hear the taunts of the nations anymore, nor bear the reproach of the peoples anymore, nor shall you cause your nation to stumble anymore,” says the Lord God.’ ”
16. Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
17. “Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds; to Me their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity.
18. Therefore I poured out My fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols with which they had defiled it.
19. So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged them according to their ways and their deeds.
20. When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name—when they said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they have gone out of His land.’