Ezekiel 36:12

Ezekiel 36:12, in plain English

Israel will walk on the mountains as their own possession, inherit them fully, and the land will no longer be barren or take away the future of God's people.

Why it's here

There's an accusation embedded here (which verse 13 will make explicit): the land itself was being blamed for taking Israel's future, for being a place of death. God is saying the land will reverse this role—it will be a place of inheritance and fruitfulness.

Who's speaking

God declaring the end of the land's curse.

Where it sits in the story

The land that was a place of judgment becomes a place of blessing. The inheritance that was lost is restored.

The scholarly reading

Israel will walk upon and possess the land as their inheritance, and the land will stop being destructive or depriving Israel of its population.

Language and setting

The accusation embedded here—that the land 'deprives your nation of its children'—reflects a bitter irony: during famine and plague in the pre-exilic period, the land itself seemed to consume Israel's population rather than sustain it. The Talmudic tradition interprets this as referencing both famine and miscarriage. The promise inverts this causality: possession will be life-giving rather than life-denying. The term 'inheritance' (Hebrew: נַחֲלָה, nachalah) invokes the foundational covenantal promise of Abrahamic land-grant.

Voice

God, reframing Israel's relationship to the land from victim of deprivation to rightful heir.

Significance

The land transitions from threat to inheritance—a covenantal reversal that restores the Abrahamic promise as the frame for post-exilic Israel's reconstitution.

10I will multiply the people upon you—the house of Israel in its entirety. The cities will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.

11I will fill you with people and animals, and they will multiply and be fruitful. I will make you as inhabited as you once were, and I will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

12Yes, I will cause My people Israel to walk upon you; they will possess you, and you will be their inheritance, and you will no longer deprive them of their children.

13For this is what the Lord GOD says: Because people say to you, ‘You devour men and deprive your nation of its children,’

14therefore you will no longer devour men or deprive your nation of its children, declares the Lord GOD.

Read all of Ezekiel 36 — I will sprinkle clean water on you. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. Not for your sake — for the sake of my holy name.