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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.
Ezekiel 36:11 · New American Standard Bible
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.
  • BSB 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 33:12Yahweh of Armies says: “Yet again shall there be in this place, which is waste, without man and without animal, and in all its cities, a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.
  • Jer 23:5–8“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
  • Mic 7:14Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your heritage, who dwell by themselves in a forest, in the middle of fertile pasture land, let them feed; in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
  • Jer 31:27“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of animal.
  • Ezek 37:13You shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, my people.
  • Jer 30:18Yahweh says: “Behold, I will turn again the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have compassion on his dwelling places. The city shall be built on its own hill, and the palace shall be inhabited in its own place.
  • Ezek 16:55Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will return to their former estate; and Samaria and her daughters will return to their former estate; and you and your daughters will return to your former estate.
  • Job 42:12So Yahweh blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys.
  • Amos 9:15I will plant them on their land, and they will no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them,” says Yahweh your God.
  • Hos 2:20I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know Yahweh.
  • Ezek 36:35They shall say, This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.
  • Zech 8:11–15But now I will not be to the remnant of this people as in the former days,” says Yahweh of Armies.
  • Heb 11:40God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
  • Isa 52:4–6For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “My people went down at the first into Egypt to live there: and the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause.
  • Obad 1:19–21Those of the South will possess the mountain of Esau, and those of the lowland, the Philistines. They will possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria. Benjamin will possess Gilead.
  • Heb 8:8–13For finding fault with them, he said, “Behold, the days come”, says the Lord, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;
  • Isa 54:7–10“For a small moment I have forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you.
  • Isa 30:26Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with.
  • Joel 3:18–21It will happen in that day, that the mountains will drop down sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk, all the brooks of Judah will flow with waters, and a fountain will flow out from Yahweh’s house, and will water the valley of Shittim.
  • Hag 2:6–9For this is what Yahweh of Armies says: ‘Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land;
  • Jer 31:38–40“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that the city shall be built to Yahweh from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner.
  • 1 Jn 5:20We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
  • Ezek 37:6I will lay sinews on you, and will bring up flesh on you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
  • Ezek 35:9I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Ezekiel videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Ezekiel 36:11YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on EzekielMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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.