say to them, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I will 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.”’
Ezekiel 37:17 Then draw them together for yourself one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand.
Ezekiel 37:18 And when the sons of your people speak to you saying, ‘Will you not declare to us what you mean by these?’
Ezekiel 37:19 say to them, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I will 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.”’
Ezekiel 37:20 And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.
Ezekiel 37:21 And speak to them, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I will 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;
The verse centers on "thus", "says", "lord", "yahweh", "behold", "take", "stick", and "joseph". 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 18's "And when the sons of your people..." into verse 20's "And the sticks on which you write...", 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.