Ezekiel 36:34 (DRB)

Passage

And the desolate land shall be tilled, which before was waste in the sight of all that passed by,

Nearby Context

Ezekiel 36:32 It is not for your sakes that I will do this, saith the Lord God, be it known to you: be confounded, and ashamed at your own ways, O house of Israel.

Ezekiel 36:33 Thus saith the Lord God: In the day that I shall cleanse you from all your iniquities, and shall cause the cities to be inhabited, and shall repair the ruinous places,

Ezekiel 36:34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, which before was waste in the sight of all that passed by,

Ezekiel 36:35 They shall say: This land that was untilled is become as a garden of pleasure: and the cities that were abandoned, and desolate, and destroyed, are peopled and fenced.

Ezekiel 36:36 And the nations, that shall be left round about you, shall know that I the Lord have built up what was destroyed, and planted what was desolate, that I the Lord have spoken and done it.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "desolate", "land", "shall", "tilled", "before", "waste", "sight", and "passed". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "desolate" and "land", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 33's "Thus saith the Lord God In the..." into verse 35's "They shall say This land that was...", so "desolate" and "land" 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 "desolate" and "land" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.