Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones

37 The ^(A)hand of the Lord was upon me, and He ^(B)brought me out ^[a]by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the ^(C)valley; and it was full of bones. ² He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. ³ He said to me, “Son of man, ^(D)can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord ^[b]God, ^(E)You know.” ⁴ Again He said to me, “^(F)Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, ^(G)hear the word of the Lord.’ ⁵ Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause ^[c](H)breath to enter you that you may come to life. ⁶ I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will ^(I)know that I am the Lord.’”

⁷ So I prophesied ^(J)as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a ^[d]noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. ⁹ Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and ^(K)breathe on these slain, that they ^(L)come to life.”’” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the ^(M)breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an ^(N)exceedingly great army.

The Vision Explained

¹¹ Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the ^(O)whole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our ^(P)bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are ^[e]completely ^(Q)cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will open your graves and ^(R)cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. ¹⁴ I will ^(S)put My ^[f]Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,” declares the Lord.’”

Reunion of Judah and Israel

¹⁵ The word of the Lord came again to me saying, ¹⁶ “And you, son of man, take for yourself ^(T)one stick and write on it, ‘For ^(U)Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For ^(V)Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.’ ¹⁷ Then ^(W)join them for yourself one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand. ¹⁸ When the sons of your people speak to you saying, ‘Will you not declare to us ^(X)what you mean by these?’ ¹⁹ say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.”’ ²⁰ The sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes. ²¹ Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will ^(Y)take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; ²² and I will make them ^(Z)one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and ^(AA)one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms. ²³ They will ^(AB)no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but ^(AC)I will deliver them from all their ^[g]dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God.

The Davidic Kingdom

²⁴ “My servant ^(AD)David will be king over them, and they will all have ^(AE)one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them. ²⁵ They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and ^(AF)David My servant will be their prince forever. ²⁶ I will make a ^(AG)covenant of peace with them; it will be an ^(AH)everlasting covenant with them. And I will ^[h]place them and ^(AI)multiply them, and will set My ^(AJ)sanctuary in their midst forever. ²⁷ My ^(AK)dwelling place also will be with them; and ^(AL)I will be their God, and they will be My people. ²⁸ And the nations will know that I am the Lord ^(AM)who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.”’”

Daleth.

Paul’s Defense before the Jews

22 “^(A)Brethren and fathers, hear my defense which I now offer to you.”

² And when they heard that he was addressing them in the ^[a](B)Hebrew dialect, they became even more quiet; and he *said,

³ “^(C)I am ^(D)a Jew, born in ^(E)Tarsus of ^(F)Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated ^[b]under ^(G)Gamaliel, ^[c](H)strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as ^(I)you all are today. ^4 (J)I persecuted this ^(K)Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, ⁵ as also ^(L)the high priest and all ^(M)the Council of the elders ^[d]can testify. From them I also ^(N)received letters to ^(O)the brethren, and started off for ^(P)Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem ^[e]as prisoners to be punished.

⁶ “^(Q)But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me, ⁷ and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ ⁸ And I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am ^(R)Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’ ⁹ And those who were with me ^(S)saw the light, to be sure, but ^(T)did not ^[f]understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me. ¹⁰ And I said, ‘^(U)What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go on into Damascus, and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you to do.’ ¹¹ But since I ^(V)could not see because of the ^[g]brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus.

¹² “A certain ^(W)Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law, and ^(X)well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, ¹³ came to me, and standing near said to me, ‘^(Y)Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And ^[h](Z)at that very time I looked up at him. ¹⁴ And he said, ‘^(AA)The God of our fathers has ^(AB)appointed you to know His will and to ^(AC)see the ^(AD)Righteous One and to hear an ^[i]utterance from His mouth. ¹⁵ For you will be ^(AE)a witness for Him to all men of ^(AF)what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶ Now why do you delay? ^(AG)Get up and be baptized, and ^(AH)wash away your sins, ^(AI)calling on His name.’

¹⁷ “It happened when I ^(AJ)returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I ^(AK)fell into a trance, ¹⁸ and I saw Him saying to me, ‘^(AL)Make haste, and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.’ ¹⁹ And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another ^(AM)I used to imprison and ^(AN)beat those who believed in You. ²⁰ And ^(AO)when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him.’ ²¹ And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away ^(AP)to the Gentiles.’”

²² They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, “^(AQ)Away with such a fellow from the earth, for ^(AR)he should not be allowed to live!” ²³ And as they were crying out and ^(AS)throwing off their cloaks and ^(AT)tossing dust into the air, ²⁴ the ^[j]commander ordered him to be brought into ^(AU)the barracks, stating that he should be ^(AV)examined by scourging so that he might find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way. ²⁵ But when they stretched him out ^[k]with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it ^[l]lawful for you to scourge ^(AW)a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?” ²⁶ When the centurion heard this, he went to the ^[m]commander and told him, saying, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman.” ²⁷ The ^[n]commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” And he said, “Yes.” ²⁸ The ^[o]commander answered, “I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money.” And Paul said, “But I was actually born a citizen.” ²⁹ Therefore those who were about to ^(AX)examine him immediately ^[p]let go of him; and the ^[q]commander also ^(AY)was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had ^[r](AZ)put him in chains.

³⁰ But on the next day, ^(BA)wishing to know for certain why he had been accused by the Jews, he ^(BB)released him and ordered the chief priests and all ^(BC)the ^[s]Council to assemble, and brought Paul down and set him before them.