
So, God promises that the Jewish people will be scattered to the nations and that, at the end of days, they’re going to be brought back to their own land.
It’s interesting that the word for ‘gather’ is the Hebrew word kabetz which is the root of today’s Hebrew noun ‘kibbutz’. One of the ways in which Jewish people were gathered to the land of Israel was the kibbutz movement through which they redeemed the land, which was desolate, made it into the fertile farmland. They drained the swamps, planted trees, caused the desolate land to become fertile. Ezekiel spoke about that also in chapter 36 and goes on to say
25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36.25-28)
This tells you that the physical return of the people to the land was only the first stage of the process. The second stage, about which God is even more interested, is the spiritual part, the redemption ‘bringing you to a new heart and a new spirit, and causing you to walk in my ways and in my judgments’.