“Nor will they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions, but I will save them out of all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. So will they be my people, and I will be their God.”
The verse has a twofold application. It firstly found fulfilment in the fact that when Israel came back to the land they were basically cured of idolatry. ‘Idols', ‘detestable things', ‘transgressions' can all be taken as having idolatry, and what accompanied it, in mind, and their foreign dwelling places had witnessed their continued love of idols. Thus there was the promise that they would be fully cleansed from these and would worship God alone (this latter links back to Ezekiel 36:28).
It then found a second fulfilment at the coming of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, when men of all nations turned from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from Heaven (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10).
But it will find its greater fulfilment when all sin is done away and the greater Israel dwells in the presence of God and of the Lamb for ever (Revelation 21:3-4; Revelation 22:3-5). In the end Ezekiel was thinking of total purity.