8. “But the mountains of Israel will produce heavy crops of fruit for my people—for they will be coming home again soon!
9. See, I care about you, and I will pay attention to you. Your ground will be plowed and your crops planted.
10. I will greatly increase the population of Israel, and the ruined cities will be rebuilt and filled with people.
11. I will increase not only the people, but also your animals. O mountains of Israel, I will bring people to live on you once again. I will make you even more prosperous than you were before. Then you will know that I am the lord.
12. I will cause my people to walk on you once again, and you will be their territory. You will never again rob them of their children.
13. “This is what the Sovereign lord says: The other nations taunt you, saying, ‘Israel is a land that devours its own people and robs them of their children!’
14. But you will never again devour your people or rob them of their children, says the Sovereign lord.
15. I will not let you hear those other nations insult you, and you will no longer be mocked by them. You will not be a land that causes its nation to fall, says the Sovereign lord.”
16. Then this further message came to me from the lord:
17. “Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by the evil way they lived. To me their conduct was as unclean as a woman’s menstrual cloth.
18. They polluted the land with murder and the worship of idols, so I poured out my fury on them.
19. I scattered them to many lands to punish them for the evil way they had lived.