What is the context?
The mountains will put out branches and bear fruit because the Lord’s people will come home. He declares Himself on the land’s side: it will be tilled and sown again.
The promise includes people and animals multiplying, inhabited cities and rebuilt ruins. The Lord will make the land prosper more than before, and His people will walk upon it and possess it as their inheritance.
The land had been accused of devouring its people and depriving them of their children. The Lord promises an end to that reproach, to the taunts of the nations and to the stumbling associated with the land’s earlier history.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley connects the nearness of the return with the people coming out of Babylon. Henry also recognizes the return to their own border, while seeing a fuller future completion and a picture of the heavenly inheritance of God’s people.
These readings give different weight to the initial return and the promise’s full reach. Both recognize the Lord reversing desolation through a restored people, inhabited land and His renewed favor.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
In Acts 3:19–26, Peter calls people to turn back so their sins may be wiped away. He speaks of refreshing from the Lord and the restoration announced through the prophets, placing that hope in relation to Jesus.
Peter is not setting out every detail of Ezekiel’s land promise. He shows the larger direction of prophetic hope: God’s promised renewal is bound to His Messiah and the blessing of people being turned from wickedness. Restoration is more than a return to familiar circumstances.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.