Ezekiel 36:4

Ezekiel 36:4, in plain English

God repeats His opening command, emphasizing that what He's about to say is crucial and worth the mountains' full attention.

Why it's here

The repetition isn't accidental—it's emphasis. In ancient communication, repeating something marked it as urgent and important. God wants His people to know this message matters.

Who's speaking

God speaking through Ezekiel.

Where it sits in the story

The repeated call to listen creates a buildup of tension. Something significant is about to be announced, and you can feel it.

The scholarly reading

God reiterates the command for Ezekiel to deliver his restorative word to the mountains, preparing the theological ground for reversal.

Language and setting

This repetition (cf. verse 1) is a rhetorical technique in prophetic literature—what scholars call Wiederaufnahme or 'resumption'—that frames the indictment (verses 2-3) and refocuses attention on the mountains as the addressees of promise. The repetition signals that condemnation of enemies is preliminary; restoration is the main event.

Voice

God commands Ezekiel, establishing the prophet's role as herald of restoration rather than merely bearer of judgment.

Significance

The mountains transition from passive victims of foreign occupation to active recipients of covenantal renewal—a shift that reframes the land itself as a participant in redemptive history.

2This is what the Lord GOD says: Because the enemy has said of you, ‘Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession,’

3therefore prophesy and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: Because they have made you desolate and have trampled you on every side, so that you became a possession of the rest of the nations and were taken up in slander by the lips of their talkers,

4therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD.

5Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Surely in My burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who took My land as their own possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, so that its pastureland became plunder.

6Therefore, prophesy concerning the land of Israel and tell the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys, that this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, I have spoken in My burning zeal because you have endured the reproach of the nations.

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.