40. For on my holy mountain, the great mountain of Israel, says the Sovereign lord, the people of Israel will someday worship me, and I will accept them. There I will require that you bring me all your offerings and choice gifts and sacrifices.
41. When I bring you home from exile, you will be like a pleasing sacrifice to me. And I will display my holiness through you as all the nations watch.
42. Then when I have brought you home to the land I promised with a solemn oath to give to your ancestors, you will know that I am the lord.
43. You will look back on all the ways you defiled yourselves and will hate yourselves because of the evil you have done.
44. You will know that I am the lord, O people of Israel, when I have honored my name by treating you mercifully in spite of your wickedness. I, the Sovereign lord, have spoken!”
45. Then this message came to me from the lord:
46. “Son of man, turn and face the south and speak out against it; prophesy against the brushlands of the Negev.