Ezekiel 36:2 (LSB)

Passage

Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Because the enemy has spoken against you, ‘Aha!’ and, ‘The everlasting heights have become our possession,’

Nearby Context

Ezekiel 36:1 “Now as for you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of Yahweh.

Ezekiel 36:2 Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Because the enemy has spoken against you, ‘Aha!’ and, ‘The everlasting heights have become our possession,’

Ezekiel 36:3 therefore prophesy and say, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “For good reason they have made you desolate and bruised you from every side, that you would become a possession of the rest of the nations, and you have been taken up in the speech of their tongue and the rumors of the people.”’”

Ezekiel 36:4 Therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of Lord Yahweh. Thus says Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the forsaken cities which have become plunder and objects of scoffing to the rest of the nations which are round about,

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "thus", "says", "lord", "yahweh", "enemy", "spoken", "against", and "everlasting". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "thus" and "says", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 1's "Now as for you son of man..." into verse 3's "therefore prophesy and say Thus says Lord...", so "thus" and "says" 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 "says" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.