The Valley of Dry Bones

¹dThe 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. ²And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. ³And he said to me, f“Son of man, gcan these bones live?” And hI answered, “O Lord God, you know.” ⁴Then he said to me, i“Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, jO dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause kbreath2 to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶lAnd 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.”

⁷So 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. ⁸And 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. ⁹Then 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.” ¹⁰So I prophesied nas he commanded me, and rthe breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

¹¹Then 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.’ ¹²Therefore 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. ¹³And wyou shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. ¹⁴And 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

¹⁵The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁶z“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.’ ¹⁷And ejoin them one to another into one stick, that fthey may become gone in your hand. ¹⁸And when hyour people say to you, i‘Will you not tell us what you mean by these?’ ¹⁹say 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. ²⁰When the sticks on which you write are in your hand lbefore their eyes, ²¹then 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. ²²And 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. ²³rThey 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. ²⁵aThey 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. ²⁶dI 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. ²⁷hMy dwelling place shall be with them, vand I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ²⁸Then ithe nations will know that jI am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when gmy sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”