The Valley of Dry Bones
1 dThe hand of the Lord was upon me, and ehe brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley;1 it was full of bones. 2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3 And he said to me, f“Son of man, gcan these bones live?” And hI answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, i“Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, jO dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause kbreath2 to enter you, and you shall live. 6 lAnd I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and lcover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, mand you shall know that I am the Lord.”
7 So I prophesied nas I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, oa rattling,3 and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But pthere was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, i“Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, fson of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from qthe four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” 10 So I prophesied nas he commanded me, and rthe breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
11 Then he said to me, f“Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and sour hope is lost; twe are indeed cut off.’ 12 Therefore iprophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, uI will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And vI will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And wyou shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14 And xI will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; yI have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”
I Will Be Their God; They Shall Be My People
15 The word of the Lord came to me: 16 z“Son of man, atake a stick4 and write on it, ‘For bJudah, and cthe people of Israel associated with him’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For bJoseph (the stick of dEphraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ 17 And ejoin them one to another into one stick, that fthey may become gone in your hand. 18 And when hyour people say to you, i‘Will you not tell us what you mean by these?’ 19 say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am about to take jthe stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the jstick of Judah,5 and kmake them one stick, gthat they may be one in my hand. 20 When the sticks on which you write are in your hand lbefore their eyes, 21 then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, mI will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and mbring them to their own land. 22 And nI will make them one nation in the land, on othe mountains of Israel. And pone king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer qtwo nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. 23 rThey shall not sdefile themselves anymore twith their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But uI will save them from all the backslidings6 in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and vthey shall be my people, and I will be their God.
24 “My servant wDavid xshall be king over them, and they shall all have yone shepherd. zThey shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. 25 aThey shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there bforever, and David my servant shall be their prince cforever. 26 dI will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be ean everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land7 and fmultiply them, and will gset my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 hMy dwelling place shall be with them, vand I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 Then ithe nations will know that jI am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when gmy sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”
Prophecy Against Gog
1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 k“Son of man, lset your face toward mGog, of the land of nMagog, the ochief prince of pMeshech8 and pTubal, and qprophesy against him 3 and say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, rI am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech9 and Tubal. 4 sAnd I will turn you about and tput hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and uall your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great host, all of them with buckler and shield, wielding swords. 5 vPersia, wCush, and vPut are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; 6 xGomer and all his yhordes; zBeth-togarmah from athe uttermost parts of the north with all his hordes—umany peoples are with you.
7 b“Be ready and keep ready, you and all your hosts that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them. 8 cAfter many days you will be mustered. dIn the latter years you will go against dthe land that is restored from war, the land whose people ewere gathered from many peoples upon fthe mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste. Its people were brought out from the peoples and gnow dwell securely, all of them. 9 You will advance, coming on hlike a storm. You will be ilike a cloud covering the land, you and all your yhordes, and many peoples with you.
10 “Thus says the Lord God: On that day, jthoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme 11 and say, ‘I will go up against kthe land of unwalled villages. I will fall upon lthe quiet people who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having no bars or gates,’ 12 to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against mthe waste places that are now inhabited, and mthe people who were gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, nwho dwell at the center of the earth. 13 oSheba and pDedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all qits leaders10 will say to you, ‘Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hosts to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to seize great spoil?’
14 “Therefore, rson of man, prophesy, and say to sGog, Thus says the Lord God: On that day when my people Israel are gdwelling securely, twill you not know it? 15 You will come from your place out of uthe uttermost parts of the north, you and vmany peoples with you, wall of them riding on horses, a great host, a mighty army. 16 You will come up against my people Israel, ilike a cloud covering the land. xIn the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, yI vindicate my holiness before their eyes.
17 “Thus says the Lord God: Are you zhe of whom I spoke in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel, who in those days prophesied for years that I would bring you against them? 18 But on that day, the day that Gog shall come against the land of Israel, declares the Lord God, amy wrath will be roused in my anger. 19 For bin my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare, On that day cthere shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. 20 dThe fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the people who are on the face of the earth, eshall quake at my presence. And fthe mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground. 21 gI will summon a sword against Gog11 on all my mountains, declares the Lord God. hEvery man’s sword will be against his brother. 22 With pestilence and bloodshed iI will enter into judgment with him, and jI will rain upon him and khis hordes and the many peoples who are with him ltorrential rains and hailstones, mfire and sulfur. 23 So I will show my greatness and my nholiness and omake myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then pthey will know that I am the Lord.
1 “And you, qson of man, rprophesy against sGog and say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, tI am against you, O Gog, uchief prince of vMeshech12 and vTubal. 2 wAnd I will turn you about and drive you forward,13 and bring you up from xthe uttermost parts of the north, and lead you against the ymountains of Israel. 3 Then zI will strike your bow from your left hand, and zwill make your arrows drop out of your right hand. 4 aYou shall fall on ythe mountains of Israel, you and all your bhordes and the peoples who are with you. cI will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. 5 You shall fall in the open field, for dI have spoken, declares the Lord God. 6 eI will send fire on fMagog and on those gwho dwell securely in hthe coastlands, and ithey shall know that I am the Lord.
7 “And jmy holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and kI will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. And lthe nations shall know that I am mthe Lord, the Holy One in Israel. 8 nBehold, it is coming and it will be brought about, declares the Lord God. That is the day oof which I have spoken.
9 “Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and pmake fires of the weapons and burn them, shields and bucklers, bow and arrows, qclubs14 and spears; and they will make fires of them for seven years, 10 so that they will not need to take wood out of the field or cut down any out of the forests, for pthey will make their fires of the weapons. rThey will seize the spoil of those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord God.
11 “On that day I will give to sGog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea. It will block the travelers, for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried. It will be called the Valley of tHamon-gog.15 12 For useven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order vto cleanse the land. 13 All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them renown on the day that wI show my glory, declares the Lord God. 14 They will set apart men to travel through the land regularly and bury those travelers remaining on the face of the land, so as vto cleanse it. At16 the end of xseven months they will make their search. 15 And when these travel through the land and anyone sees a human bone, then he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of yHamon-gog. 16 (Hamonah17 is also the name of the city.) Thus shall they cleanse the land.
17 “As for you, zson of man, thus says the Lord God: aSpeak to bthe birds of every sort and to ball beasts of the field: ‘Assemble and come, gather from all around to cthe sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. 18 dYou shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, of bulls, all of them efat beasts of Bashan. 19 And you shall eat fat till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you. 20 And you shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all kinds of warriors,’ declares the Lord God.
21 “And fI will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see gmy judgment that I have executed, and gmy hand that I have laid on them. 22 hThe house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward. 23 And ithe nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt so treacherously with me that jI hid my face from them and kgave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. 24 I dealt with them laccording to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them.
The Lord Will Restore Israel
25 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now mI will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on nthe whole house of Israel, and oI will be jealous for my holy name. 26 They shall pforget their shame and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when qthey dwell securely in their land with rnone to make them afraid, 27 swhen I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies’ lands, tand through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations. 28 hThen they shall know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore. 29 uAnd I will not hide my face anymore from them, when vI pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord God.”
False Prophets and Teachers
1 But mfalse prophets also arose among the people, njust as there will be false teachers among you, who will osecretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master pwho bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth qwill be blasphemed. 3 And rin their greed they will exploit you swith false words. tTheir condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4 For if God did not spare uangels when they sinned, but vcast them into hell1 and committed them to chains2 of gloomy darkness wto be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but xpreserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought ya flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by zturning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, amaking them an example of bwhat is going to happen to the ungodly;3 7 and cif he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, dhe was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then ethe Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,4 and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially fthose who indulge5 in the lust of defiling passion and gdespise authority.
Bold and willful, they do not tremble gas they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 hwhereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 iBut these, like irrational animals, jcreatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as kthe wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure lto revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions,6 while mthey feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery,7 ninsatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts otrained in greed. pAccursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, qthey have gone astray. They have followed rthe way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved sgain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; ta speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17 uThese are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. vFor them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, wspeaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely xescaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them yfreedom, zbut they themselves are slaves8 of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, aafter they have escaped the defilements of the world bthrough the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, cthe last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For dit would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from ethe holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The fdog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
