“And you will know that I am Yahweh, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country which I lifted up my hand (swore) to give to your fathers, and there you will remember your ways, and all your doings in which you have polluted yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed.”
The vision was for the future, but here God promises to these enquiring exiles (he was more merciful than He had said He would be, see Ezekiel 20:3; Ezekiel 20:31), that one day Israel will return to the land, and they will repent with a great repentance and awareness of sin, recognising their own total unworthiness. There would be a great restoration to God, as finally seen through the ministry of John the Baptiser and of Jesus Himself.