I will fill you with people and animals, and they will multiply and be fruitful. I will make you as inhabited as you once were, and I will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
Parallel translations
- WEB and I will multiply on you man and animal; and they shall increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited after your former estate, and you will do better than at your beginnings: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
- KJV And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
- NKJV I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bear young; I will make you inhabited as in former times, and do better for you than at your beginnings. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.
- NASB I will multiply on you people and animals, and they will increase and be fruitful; and I will populate you as you were previously, and treat you better than at the beginning. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
- NLT I will increase not only the people, but also your animals. O mountains of Israel, I will bring people to live on you once again. I will make you even more prosperous than you were before. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God will multiply both people and animals on the land, prospering it beyond its former state, so that they know He is the LORD. Restoration surpasses the original.
Overview
Increase of 'man and animal' and being 'fruitful' echoes the creation blessing (Gen. 1:28). God pledges to make the land 'better than at your beginnings'—restoration that exceeds what was lost. The goal again is recognition: 'you shall know that I am Yahweh.' God's redemptive work does not merely repair; it surpasses, pointing to the greater glory of the new creation in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 24
- Jer 33:12This is what the LORD of Hosts says: In this desolate place, without man or beast, and in all its cities, there will once more be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks.
- Jer 23:5–8Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign wisely as King and will administer justice and righteousness in the land.
- Mic 7:14Shepherd with Your staff Your people, the flock of Your inheritance. They live alone in a woodland, surrounded by pastures. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
- Jer 31:27“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and of beast.
- Ezek 37:13Then you, My people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.
- Jer 30:18This is what the LORD says: “I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on his dwellings. And the city will be rebuilt on her own ruins, and the palace will stand in its rightful place.
- Ezek 16:55And your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state. You and your daughters will also return to your former state.
- Job 42:12So the LORD blessed Job’s latter days more than his first. He owned 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.
- Amos 9:15I will firmly plant them in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God.
- Hos 2:20And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.”
- Ezek 36:35Then they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden. The cities that were once ruined, desolate, and destroyed are now fortified and inhabited.’
- Zech 8:11–15But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as I did in the past,” declares the LORD of Hosts.
- Heb 11:40God had planned something better for us, so that together with us they would be made perfect.
- Isa 52:4–6For this is what the Lord GOD says: “At first My people went down to Egypt to live, then Assyria oppressed them without cause.
- Obad 1:19–21Those from the Negev will possess the mountains of Esau; those from the foothills will possess the land of the Philistines. They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead.
- Heb 8:8–13But God found fault with the people and said: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
- Isa 54:7–10“For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will bring you back.
- Isa 30:26The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day that the LORD binds up the brokenness of His people and heals the wounds He has inflicted.
- Joel 3:18–21And in that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk. All the streams of Judah will run with water, and a spring will flow from the house of the LORD to water the Valley of Acacias.
- Hag 2:6–9For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.
- Jer 31:38–40“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when this city will be rebuilt for Me, from the tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.
- 1 Jn 5:20And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true—in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
- Ezek 37:6I will attach tendons to you and make flesh grow upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath within you so that you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”
- Ezek 35:9I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 36:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.