Passage
Ezekiel 36.26-27
Book: Ezekiel · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT
Immediate context (±2 verses)
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ASV
24. For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. 27. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them.
- And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29. And I will save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the grain, and will multiply it, and lay no famine upon you. (Ezekiel 36:24-29, ASV)
WEB
24. For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26. I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. 27. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.
- You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29. I will save you from all your uncleanness: and I will call for the grain, and will multiply it, and lay no famine on you. (Ezekiel 36:24-29, WEB)
KJV
24. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
- And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. (Ezekiel 36:24-29, KJV)
YLT
24. And I have taken you out of the nations, And have gathered you out of all the lands, And I have brought you in unto your land, 25. And I have sprinkled over you clean water, And ye have been clean; From all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols, I do cleanse you.
26. And I have given to you a new heart, And a new spirit I give in your midst, And I have turned aside the heart of stone out of your flesh, And I have given to you a heart of flesh. 27. And My Spirit I give in your midst, And I have done this, so that in My statutes ye walk, And My judgments ye keep, and have done them.
- And ye have dwelt in the land that I have given to your fathers, And ye have been to Me for a people, And I, I am to you for God. 29. And I have saved you from all your uncleannesses, And I have called unto the corn, and multiplied it, And I have put no famine upon you. (Ezekiel 36:24-29, YLT)
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Setting
- Speaker: the LORD, through Ezekiel
- Audience: the exiles in Babylon
- Location: Babylon, among the exiles by the river Chebar
- Time period: the sixth century BC, during the exile
Theological reading
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you... and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. This is the Ezekielian counterpart to Jeremiah's new covenant, and the two together define what the prophets said the exile had failed to remedy.
The structure of the promise is worth noticing because it is entirely one-sided. Every verb in the passage has God as its subject: I will give, I will put, I will take away, I will cause. What is promised is not assistance toward obedience but the replacement of the organ of willing, a heart of stone exchanged for a heart of flesh. The stated ground, given a few verses earlier, is not Israel's merit but God's concern for his own name, which the passage says Israel profaned among the nations.
The immediate sequence matters for a New Testament connection that is often asserted loosely. Verse 25 speaks of clean water sprinkled, and verses 26 and 27 of a new spirit and God's Spirit. Water and Spirit appear together, in that order, in a promise of national restoration. When Jesus tells Nicodemus that a man must be born of water and of the Spirit and then rebukes him for not knowing this as a teacher of Israel, the rebuke implies a text Nicodemus should have recognised, and this passage is the most probable candidate.
The passage also frames a standing question between traditions about the relationship of divine initiative to human response. What it does not do is present the two as competing, since the promised result is precisely that the people will walk in the statutes, that is, that they will genuinely act.
Key words
Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.
- H1320 - basar, basar, Strong's H1320
- H7307 - ruach, ruach, Strong's H7307
- H4941 - mishpat, mishpat, Strong's H4941
- H3820 - lev, lev, Strong's H3820
- H6213 - asah, asah, Strong's H6213
Quoted in
Arguments and defeaters:
- Christians Not Under Mosaic Law
- Jeremiah 31 New Covenant Objection Defeater, via Ezekiel 36.25-27
- Jews Do Not Need Jesus Objection Defeater
- Mosaic Law Binding for True Israelites Objection Defeater
- Original Sin Is Foreign to Judaism Objection Defeater
Concepts:
- 100 Common Questions, via Ezekiel 36.26
- Baptism, via Ezekiel 36.25-27
- Eschatology
- Monergism
- Mosaic Law
- Paraclete, Identity and Recipients
- Pentecost
- Prayers for Evangelism, via Ezekiel 36.26
Lexicon:
Why these four translations
ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.
The four:
- ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
- WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
- KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
- YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.
See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.