Thus says the Lord GOD: A new part of the prophecy begins with this traditional prophetic introduction (see Ezek 36.2). This part also looks forward to better times to come, after God has made his people ritually clean, as he promised in the previous verses.

On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities: On the day that does not imply that everything listed in the next few verses will happen on that very day. This phrase may be rendered “After” (Contemporary English Version) or “When” (Good News Translation, New Living Translation, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Cleanse means “make clean.” For iniquities see verse 31.

I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt: See verse 10. Here God is explicitly the agent. Good News Translation provides a helpful model for these two clauses, saying “I will let you live in your cities again and let you rebuild the ruins.”

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .