41 When I bring you home from exile, you will be like a pleasing sacrifice to me. And I will display my holiness through you as all the nations watch.
42 Then when I have brought you home to the land I promised with a solemn oath to give to your ancestors, you will know that I am the lord.
43 You will look back on all the ways you defiled yourselves and will hate yourselves because of the evil you have done.
44 You will know that I am the lord, O people of Israel, when I have honored my name by treating you mercifully in spite of your wickedness. I, the Sovereign lord, have spoken!”
45 Then this message came to me from the lord:
46 “Son of man, turn and face the south and speak out against it; prophesy against the brushlands of the Negev.
47 Tell the southern wilderness, ‘This is what the Sovereign lord says: Hear the word of the lord! I will set you on fire, and every tree, both green and dry, will be burned. The terrible flames will not be quenched and will scorch everything from south to north.