say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions, and will put them with this, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand.
Ezekiel 37:17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thy hand.
Ezekiel 37:18 And when the children of my people speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not declare unto us what thou meanest by these?
Ezekiel 37:19 say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions, and will put them with this, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand.
Ezekiel 37:20 And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thy hand before their eyes.
Ezekiel 37:21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they are gone, and will gather them from every side, and bring them into their own land:
The verse centers on "thus", "saith", "lord", "jehovah", "behold", "take", "stick", and "joseph". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "thus" and "saith", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 18's "And when the children of my people..." into verse 20's "And the sticks whereon thou writest shall...", so "thus" and "saith" belong inside that flow. In Ezekiel context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "thus" and "saith" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.