Ezekiel 11:17,18

“Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh, I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they shall come there, and they will take away all its detestable things, and all its abominations from there.' ”

One day Yahweh would again act for His people, and would gather and assemble them wherever they were, and would bring them back to the land and again give it to them. And when they came they would scrupulously remove all idolatry and all that was connected with it. Notice the stress on multiplicity. They would be gathered from far and wide. There is no reason to doubt that connection was maintained between scattered families and once restoration began the clarion call would go out and exiles would come from near and far. With possibly a few exceptions the ‘lost tribes' were really not lost at all.

‘I will give you the land of Israel.' This was the guarantee of their continuing part in the covenant. Contrast Ezekiel 11:15 where possession of the land was seen as the proof of blessing by those who were in fact under condemnation. But what they overlooked was that the land was no longer theirs for God had for the time being given it to Nebuchadnezzar. But for the exiles He was promising a new Exodus, a new deliverance, a new journey to the promised land. This giving of the land was part of God's covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12:1), and was seen by Israel as evidence that they were God's people. However it should be noted that the idea of the land drops out of the later covenants (e.g. 2 Samuel 7:12; Isaiah 55:3, where it is replaced by eternal kingship; Jeremiah 31:31 where it is replaced by an eternal relationship) because a greater idea and fulfilment is in view.