¹¹ The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together;^(A) they will appoint one leader^(B) and will come up out of the land,^(C) for great will be the day of Jezreel.^[a](D)

⁵ Afterward the Israelites will return and seek^(A) the Lord their God and David their king.^(B) They will come trembling^(C) to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.^(D)

¹⁶ “Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, ‘Belonging to Judah and the Israelites^(A) associated with him.^(B)’ Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, ‘Belonging to Joseph (that is, to Ephraim) and all the Israelites associated with him.’ ¹⁷ Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand.^(C)

¹⁸ “When your people ask you, ‘Won’t you tell us what you mean by this?’^{(D) 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.’^{(E) 20} Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on ²¹ and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land.^{(F) 22} I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel.^(G) There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms.^{(H) 23} They will no longer defile^(I) themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding,^[a](J) and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.^(K)

²⁴ “‘My servant David^(L) will be king^(M) over them, and they will all have one shepherd.^(N) They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees.^{(O) 25} They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived.^(P) They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever,^(Q) and David my servant will be their prince forever.^(R)

⁷ “So then, the days are coming,”^(H) declares the Lord, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’^{(I) 8} but they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land.”^(J)

¹⁸ In those days the people of Judah will join the people of Israel,^(A) and together^(B) they will come from a northern^(C) land to the land^(D) I gave your ancestors as an inheritance.

¹⁹ “I myself said,