Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 36:3

"therefore prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because, even because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the nations, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and the evil report of the people;" — Ezekiel 36:3 (ASV)

In the lips of talkers, and are an infamy.— A phrase equivalent to a by-word and a reproach. (1 Kings 9:7, and others.) In the previous clause the words, “have swallowed you up,” should instead be “pant for you,” the word being taken from the snuffing and panting of wild beasts. It was in this manner that “the residue of the heathen,” all those whom the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar had still left, panted for the possession of the lands of Israel.