⁹ I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown,^{(A) 10} and I will cause many people to live on you—yes, all of Israel. The towns will be inhabited and the ruins^(B) rebuilt.^{(C) 11} I will increase the number of people and animals living on you, and they will be fruitful^(D) and become numerous. I will settle people^(E) on you as in the past^(F) and will make you prosper more than before.^(G) Then you will know that I am the Lord. ¹² I will cause people, my people Israel, to live on you. They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance;^(H) you will never again deprive them of their children.

¹³ “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because some say to you, “You devour people^(I) and deprive your nation of its children,” ¹⁴ therefore you will no longer devour people or make your nation childless, declares the Sovereign Lord. ¹⁵ No longer will I make you hear the taunts of the nations, and no longer will you suffer the scorn of the peoples or cause your nation to fall, declares the Sovereign Lord.^(J)’”