Yes, I will cause My people Israel to walk upon you; they will possess you, and you will be their inheritance, and you will no longer deprive them of their children. For this is what the Lord GOD says: Because people say to you, 'You devour men and deprive your nation of its children,' therefore you will no longer devour men or deprive your nation of its children, declares the Lord GOD. I will no longer allow the taunts of the nations to be heard against you, and you will no longer endure the reproach of the peoples or cause your nation to stumble, declares the Lord GOD." Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Son of man, when the people of Israel lived in their land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds. Their behavior before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman's impurity. So I poured out My wrath upon them because of the blood they had shed on the land, and because they had defiled it with their idols. I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered throughout the lands. I judged them according to their ways and deeds.
So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature.
Significance
Ezekiel 36:12-19 addresses the long-standing accusation that the land "devours its inhabitants" (אֹכֶלֶת אָדָם, okhelet adam), language originating in the spies' evil report of Numbers 13:32. The extended passage traces how this accusation gained credibility through Israel's history of defilement, exile, and national loss. God promises not only to restore the people to the land but to permanently end the land's reputation as a devourer of nations: "you will no longer deprive them of children" (36:14). The reversal of the Numbers slander becomes part of Ezekiel's broader argument that God acts "for the sake of My holy name" (לְמַעַן שְׁמִי הַקָּדוֹשׁ) to vindicate both His land and His people. In doing so Ezekiel reframes the entire problem: it was never the land's nature but Israel's own covenant unfaithfulness that caused their dispossession.
