² “What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel:

²⁹ “In those days people will no longer say,

³⁰ Instead, everyone will die for their own sin;^(C) whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.

¹⁹ say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph—which is in Ephraim’s hand—and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah’s stick. I will make them into a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.’^(A)

²⁵ They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived.^(A) They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever,^(B) and David my servant will be their prince forever.^(C)

¹¹ Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’^(A)

¹² “Say to this rebellious people, ‘Do you not know what these things mean?^(A)’ Say to them: ‘The king of Babylon went to Jerusalem and carried off her king and her nobles,^(B) bringing them back with him to Babylon.^(C)

²⁰ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?^(A) “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,^(B) ‘Why did you make me like this?’”^[a](C)