9. I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown,
10. and I will cause many people to live on you—yes, all of Israel. The towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.
11. I will increase the number of people and animals living on you, and they will be fruitful and become numerous. I will settle people on you as in the past and will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
12. I will cause people, my people Israel, to live on you. They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance; you will never again deprive them of their children.
13. “ ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because some say to you, “You devour people and deprive your nation of its children,”
14. therefore you will no longer devour people or make your nation childless, declares the Sovereign Lord.
15. No longer will I make you hear the taunts of the nations, and no longer will you suffer the scorn of the peoples or cause your nation to fall, declares the Sovereign Lord.’ ”
16. Again the word of the Lord came to me:
17. “Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by their conduct and their actions. Their conduct was like a woman’s monthly uncleanness in my sight.
18. So I poured out my wrath on them because they had shed blood in the land and because they had defiled it with their idols.
19. I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered through the countries; I judged them according to their conduct and their actions.
20. And wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name, for it was said of them, ‘These are the Lord’s people, and yet they had to leave his land.’
21. I had concern for my holy name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone.
22. “Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone.
23. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.
24. “ ‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.