Ezekiel 36:13

Ezekiel 36:13, in plain English

The nations have accused the land of devouring its people—saying it's a place of death that destroys futures and takes away children's lives.

Why it's here

This reflects the reality of exile and desolation: famine, disease, and death characterized the abandoned land. Enemies mocked it as cursed, saying it consumed whoever tried to live there. The accusation was both insult and spiritual curse.

Who's speaking

God describing what the nations have said about Israel's land.

Where it sits in the story

You're seeing the full weight of the curse that exile brought. But God is about to reverse it completely.

The scholarly reading

God acknowledges the taunting accusation leveled against the land—that it devours its inhabitants and causes national decline.

Language and setting

This verse articulates the defamatory speech directed at the land by surrounding peoples, who attributed Israel's diminishment to the land's inherent barrenness or curse. The accusation 'devour men and deprive your nation of its children' echoes Numbers 13:32 (the slanderous report of ten spies about Canaan being a 'land that devours its inhabitants'). This linguistic echo suggests Ezekiel deliberately inverts the anti-Israel rhetoric of Israel's own history, converting it into a critique the enemies now face.

Voice

God reports the nations' mocking words about the land, setting up the refutation to follow.

Significance

The nations' defamatory speech mirrors and inverts the original Israelite fear-narrative about Canaan, suggesting that Israel's exilic trauma has been weaponized against them through the same accusatory language they themselves once employed.

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.

15I will no longer allow the taunts of the nations to be heard against you, and you will no longer endure the reproach of the peoples or cause your nation to stumble, 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.