15 The word of the Lord came to me: 16 ^z“Son of man, ^atake a stick¹ and write on it, ‘For ^bJudah, and ^cthe people of Israel associated with him’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For ^bJoseph (the stick of ^dEphraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ 17 And ^ejoin them one to another into one stick, that ^fthey may become ^gone in your hand. 18 And when ^hyour people say to you, ⁱ‘Will you not tell us what you mean by these?’ 19 say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am about to take ^jthe stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the ^jstick of Judah,² and ^kmake them one stick, ^gthat they may be one in my hand. 20 When the sticks on which you write are in your hand ^lbefore their eyes, 21 then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, ^mI will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and ^mbring them to their own land. 22 And ⁿI will make them one nation in the land, on ^othe mountains of Israel. And ^pone king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer ^qtwo nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. 23 ^rThey shall not ^sdefile themselves anymore ^twith their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But ^uI will save them from all the backslidings³ in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and ^vthey shall be my people, and I will be their God.

24 “My servant ^wDavid ^xshall be king over them, and they shall all have ^yone shepherd. ^zThey shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. 25 ^aThey shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there ^bforever, and David my servant shall be their prince ^cforever. 26 ^dI will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be ^ean everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land⁴ and ^fmultiply them, and will ^gset my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 ^hMy dwelling place shall be with them, ^vand I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 Then ⁱthe nations will know that ^jI am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when ^gmy sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”