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15 The Lord’s message came to me: 16 “As for you, son of man, take one branch and write on it, ‘For Judah and for the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another branch and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the branch of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ 17 Join[a] them as one stick;[b] they will be as one in your hand. 18 When your people[c] say to you, ‘Will you not tell us what these things mean?’ 19 tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to take the branch of Joseph that is in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I will place them on the stick of Judah[d] and make them into one stick—they will be one in my hand.’[e] 20 The sticks you write on will be in your hand in front of them. 21 Then tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to take the Israelites from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from round about and bring them to their land. 22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over them all. They will never again be two nations and never again be divided into two kingdoms.[f]

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 37:17 tn Heb “bring near.”
  2. Ezekiel 37:17 tn Heb “one to one for you for one stick.”
  3. Ezekiel 37:18 tn Heb “the sons of your people.”
  4. Ezekiel 37:19 tn Heb “I will place them on it, that is, on the stick of Judah.”
  5. Ezekiel 37:19 sn The reunification of Israel and Judah is envisioned as well in Ezek 33:23, 29; Jer 3:18; 23:5-6; Hos 1:11; Amos 9:11.
  6. Ezekiel 37:22 sn Jeremiah also attested to the reuniting of the northern and southern kingdoms (Jer 3:12, 14; 31:2-6).

One Nation Under One King

15 The word of the Lord came to me: 16 “Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, ‘Belonging to Judah and the Israelites(A) associated with him.(B)’ Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, ‘Belonging to Joseph (that is, to Ephraim) and all the Israelites associated with him.’ 17 Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand.(C)

18 “When your people ask you, ‘Won’t you tell us what you mean by this?’(D) 19 say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph—which is in Ephraim’s hand—and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah’s stick. I will make them into a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.’(E) 20 Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on 21 and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land.(F) 22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel.(G) There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms.(H)

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