Ezekiel 36:37

37. I will yet [or, “moreover,” R.V.] for this be inquired of While the people kept their old disobedient heart Jehovah had refused to respond to their petitions or inquiries (Ezekiel 14:3; Ezekiel 20:3), but now he is willing to answer their prayers, and the population of the Holy Land, which has been decimated, shall increase like the flock “for sacrifice” (Ezekiel 36:38, R.V.), and the people shall fill the waste cities as the flocks at the time of the great feasts covered the hills. (Compare 34.) This illustration was drawn from Ezekiel’s memory of his boyhood, when he had seen what seemed to him countless numbers of sacrificial lambs driven into Jerusalem. At the time he spoke the holy city and the temple were both in ruins, but he sees in the future a vast and holy “flock of men” occupying the land now held by a vile and profane remnant (Ezekiel 33:24).