22. So tell the family of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Family of Israel, you ruined my holy name in the places where you went. I am going to do something to stop this. I will not do it for your sake, Israel. I will do it for my holy name.
23. I will show the nations how holy my great name really is. You ruined my good name in those nations! But I will show you that I am holy. I will make you respect my name, and then those nations will know that I am the Lord.’” This is what the Lord GOD said.
24. “I will take you out of those nations, gather you together, and bring you back to your own land.
25. Then I will sprinkle pure water on you and make you pure. I will wash away all your filth, the filth from those nasty idols, and I will make you pure.
26. I will also put a new spirit in you to change your way of thinking. I will take out the heart of stone from your body and give you a tender, human heart.
27. I will put my Spirit inside you and change you so that you will obey my laws. You will carefully obey my commands.
28. Then you will live in the land that I gave to your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God.
29. Also, I will save you and keep you from becoming unclean. I will command the grain to grow. I will not bring a famine against you.
30. I will give you large crops of fruit from your trees and the harvest from your fields so that you will never again feel the shame of being hungry in a foreign country.
31. You will remember the bad things you did. You will remember that those things were not good. Then you will hate yourselves because of your sins and the terrible things you did.”
32. The Lord GOD says, “I want you to remember this: I am not doing these things for your good! I am doing them for my good name. Family of Israel, you should be ashamed and embarrassed about the way you lived!”
33. This is what the Lord GOD says: “On the day that I wash away your sins, I will bring people back to your cities. The ruined cities will be rebuilt.
34. People will begin again to work the land so when other people pass by they will not see ruins anymore.
35. They will say, ‘In the past, this land was ruined, but now it is like the Garden of Eden. The cities were destroyed. They were ruined and empty, but now they are protected, and there are people living in them.’
36. “Then the nations that are still around you will know I am the Lord and that I rebuilt those places. I planted things in this land that was empty. I am the Lord. I said this, and I will make them happen!”
37. This is what the Lord GOD says: “I will also let the family of Israel come to me and ask me to do these things for them. I will make them grow and become many people. They will be like flocks of sheep.