1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle (special messenger) of Jesus Christ, to those who have received (obtained an equal privilege of) like precious faith with ourselves in and through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

² May grace (God’s favor) and peace (which is ^[a]perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and ^[b]freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied to you in [the full, personal, ^[c]precise, and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³ For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [^[d]full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue).

⁴ By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature.

⁵ For this very reason, ^[e]adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in ^[f]exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence),

⁶ And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness (piety),

⁷ And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love.

⁸ For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep [you] from being idle or unfruitful unto the [^[g]full personal] knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

⁹ For whoever lacks these qualities is blind, [^[h]spiritually] shortsighted, ^[i]seeing only what is near to him, and has become oblivious [to the fact] that he was cleansed from his old sins.

¹⁰ Because of this, brethren, be all the more solicitous and eager to make sure (to ratify, to strengthen, to make steadfast) your calling and election; for if you do this, you will never stumble or fall.

¹¹ Thus there will be richly and abundantly provided for you entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

¹² So I intend always to remind you about these things, although indeed you know them and are firm in the truth that [you] now [hold].

¹³ I think it right, as long as I am in this tabernacle (tent, body), to stir you up by way of remembrance,

¹⁴ Since I know that the laying aside of this body of mine will come speedily, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.

¹⁵ Moreover, I will diligently endeavor [to see to it] that [even] after my departure (decease) you may be able at all times to call these things to mind.

¹⁶ For we were not following cleverly devised stories when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah), but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty (grandeur, authority of sovereign power).

¹⁷ For when He was invested with honor and glory from God the Father and a voice was borne to Him by the [splendid] Majestic Glory [in the bright cloud that overshadowed Him, saying], This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased and delight,

¹⁸ We [actually] heard this voice borne out of heaven, for we were together with Him on the holy mountain.

¹⁹ And we have the prophetic word [made] firmer still. You will do well to pay close attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dismal (squalid and dark) place, until the day breaks through [the gloom] and the Morning Star rises (^[j]comes into being) in your hearts.

²⁰ [Yet] first [you must] understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is [a matter] of any personal or private or special interpretation (loosening, solving).

²¹ For no prophecy ever originated because some man willed it [to do so—it never came by human impulse], but men spoke from God who were borne along (moved and impelled) by the Holy Spirit.

37 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones.

² And He caused me to pass round about among them, and behold, there were very many [human bones] in the open valley or plain, and behold, they were very dry.

³ And He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, You know!^(A)

⁴ Again He said to me, Prophesy to these bones and say to them, O you dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.^(B)

⁵ Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath and spirit to enter you, and you shall live;

⁶ And I will lay sinews upon you and bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin, and I will put breath and spirit in you, and you [dry bones] shall live; and you shall know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a [thundering] noise and behold, a shaking and trembling and a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

⁸ And I looked and behold, there were sinews upon [the bones] and flesh came upon them and skin covered them over, but there was no breath or spirit in them.

⁹ Then said He to me, Prophesy to the breath and spirit, son of man, and say to the breath and spirit, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath and spirit, and breathe upon these slain that they may live.

¹⁰ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath and spirit came into [the bones], and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceedingly great host.^(C)

¹¹ Then He said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost; we are completely cut off.

¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, O My people; and I will bring you [back home] to the land of Israel.^(D)

¹³ And you shall know that I am the Lord [your Sovereign Ruler], when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, O My people.

¹⁴ And I shall put My Spirit in you and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then you shall know, understand, and realize that I the Lord have spoken it and performed it, says the Lord.

¹⁵ The word of the Lord came again to me, saying,

¹⁶ Son of man, take a stick and write on it, For Judah and the children of Israel his companions; then take another stick and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel his companions;

¹⁷ And join them together into one stick that they may become one in your hand.

¹⁸ And when your people say to you, Will you not show us 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 associates, and will join with it the stick of Judah and make them one stick, and they shall be one in My hand.

²⁰ When the sticks on which you write shall be in your hand before their eyes,

²¹ Then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations to which they have gone, and will ^[a]gather them from every side and bring them into their own land.

²² And I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel, and one ^[b]King shall be King over them all; and they shall be no longer two nations, neither be divided into two kingdoms any more.^(E)

²³ They shall not defile themselves any more with their idols and their detestable things or with any of their transgressions, but I will save them out of all their dwelling places and from all their backslidings in which they have sinned, and I will cleanse them. So shall they be My people, and I will be their God.

²⁴ And ^[c]David My Servant shall be King over them, and they all shall have one Shepherd. They shall also walk in My ordinances and heed My statutes and do them.

²⁵ They shall dwell in the land in which your fathers dwelt, that I gave to My servant Jacob, and they shall dwell there, they and their children and their children’s children, forever; and My Servant David shall be their Prince forever.^(F)

²⁶ I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will give blessings to them and multiply them and will set My sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore.

²⁷ My tabernacle or dwelling place also shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

²⁸ Then the nations shall know, understand, and realize that I the Lord do set apart and consecrate Israel for holy use, when My sanctuary shall be in their midst forevermore.

38 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

² Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of ^[d]Magog, the prince of Rosh, of Meshech, and of Tubal, and prophesy against him,

³ And say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince (ruler) of Rosh, of Meshech, and of Tubal.

⁴ And I will turn you back and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords—

⁵ Persia, Cush, and Put or Libya with them, all of them with shield and helmet,

⁶ Gomer and all his hordes, the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north and all his hordes—many people are with you.

⁷ You [Gog] be prepared; yes, prepare yourself, you and all your companies that are assembled about you, and you be a guard and a commander for them.

⁸ After many days you shall be visited and mustered [for service]; in the latter years you shall go against the land that is restored from the ravages of the sword, where people are gathered out of many nations upon the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste; but its [people] are brought forth out of the nations and they shall dwell securely, all of them.^(G)

⁹ You shall ascend and come like a storm; you shall be like a cloud to cover the land, you and all your hosts and many people with you.

¹⁰ Thus says the Lord God: At the same time thoughts shall come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan.

¹¹ And you will say, I will go up against an open country [the land of unwalled villages]; I will fall upon those who are at rest, who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates,

¹² To take spoil and prey, to turn your hand upon the desolate places now inhabited and assail the people gathered out of the nations, who have obtained livestock and goods, who dwell at the center of the earth [Palestine].

¹³ Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish, with all their lionlike cubs [or satellite areas], shall say to you, Have you come to take spoil? Have you gathered your hosts to take the prey? To carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take a great spoil?

¹⁴ Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord God: In that day when My people Israel dwell securely, will you not know it and be aroused?

¹⁵ And you will come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great host, a mighty army.

¹⁶ And you shall come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. In the latter days I will bring you against My land, that the nations may know, understand, and realize Me when My holiness shall be vindicated through you [vindicated and honored in your overwhelming destruction], O Gog, before their eyes.

¹⁷ Thus says the Lord God: Are you he of whom I have spoken in olden times by My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for years that I would bring you [Gog] against them?

¹⁸ But in that day when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, says the Lord God, My wrath shall come up into My nostrils.

¹⁹ For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath have I said, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking or cosmic catastrophe in the land of Israel,

²⁰ So that the fishes of the sea and the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall tremble and shake at My presence; and the mountains shall be thrown down and the steep places shall fall and every wall [natural or artificial] shall fall to the ground.

²¹ And I will call for a sword against [Gog] throughout all My mountains, says the Lord God, every man’s sword shall be against his brother [over the dividing of booty].

²² And with pestilence and with bloodshed will I enter into judgment with [Gog], and I will rain upon him and upon his hordes and upon the many peoples that are with him torrents of rain and great hailstones, fire and brimstone.^(H)

²³ Thus will I demonstrate My greatness and My holiness, and I will be recognized, understood, and known in the eyes of many nations; yes, they shall know that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].