The Excellency of Brotherly Unity.

A Song of Ascents, of David.

¹⁶ “Now you, son of man, take for yourself ^(A)one stick and write on it, ‘For ^(B)Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For ^(C)Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.’ ¹⁷ Then ^(D)put them together for yourself one to another into one stick, so that they may become one in your hand. ¹⁸ And when the sons of your people speak to you, saying, ‘Will you not declare to us ^(E)what ^[a]you mean by these?’ ¹⁹ say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am going to take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.”’ ²⁰ The sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes. ²¹ And say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am going to ^(F)take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; ²² and I will make them ^(G)one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and ^(H)one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations, and no longer be divided into two kingdoms. ²³ They will ^(I)no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their offenses; but ^(J)I will rescue them from all their ^[b]dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God.

¹⁴ Then I cut in pieces my second staff ^(A)Union, to ^(B)break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.