The Valley of Dry Bones

37 The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.^{(A) 2} He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. ³ He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”^{(B) 4} Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵ Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath^[a] to enter you, and you shall live.^{(C) 6} I will lay sinews on you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin and put breath^[b] in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”^(D)

⁷ So I prophesied as I had been commanded, and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them, but there was no breath in them. ⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath:^[c] Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath,^[d] and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”^{(E) 10} I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.^(F)

¹¹ Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’^{(G) 12} Therefore prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O my people, and I will bring you back to the land of Israel.^{(H) 13} And you shall know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O my people.^{(I) 14} I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.”^(J)

Final Exhortations, Greetings, and Benediction

¹² But we appeal to you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who labor among you and have charge of you in the Lord and admonish you;^{(A) 13} esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. ¹⁴ And we urge you, brothers and sisters, to admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them.^{(B) 15} See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all.^{(C) 16} Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not despise prophecies, ²¹ but test everything; hold fast to what is good;^{(D) 22} abstain from every form of evil.

²³ May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound^[a] and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.^{(E) 24} The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.^(F)

²⁵ Brothers and sisters, pray for us.^(G)

²⁶ Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss. ²⁷ I solemnly command you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brothers and sisters.^(H)

²⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.^[b]

The Two Sticks

¹⁵ The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁶ Mortal, take a stick and write on it, “For Judah and the Israelites associated with it”; then take another stick and write on it, “For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with it”;^{(A) 17} and join them together into one stick, so 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: I am about to take the stick of Joseph (which is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with it, and I will put the stick of Judah upon it^[a] and make them one stick, in order that they may be one in my hand.”^{(B) 20} When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, ²¹ then say to them, “Thus says the Lord God: I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone and will gather them from every quarter and bring them to their own land.^{(C) 22} I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king over them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.^{(D) 23} They shall never again defile themselves with their idols and their detestable things or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all the apostasies into which they have fallen^[b] and will cleanse them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.^(E)

²⁴ “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes.^{(F) 25} They shall live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your ancestors lived; they and their children and their children’s children shall live there forever, and my servant David shall be their prince forever.^{(G) 26} I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will bless^[c] them and multiply them and will set my sanctuary among them forevermore.^{(H) 27} My dwelling place shall be over them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.^{(I) 28} Then the nations shall know that I the Lord sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is among them forevermore.”^(J)

Warning to Pay Attention

2 Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. ² For if the message declared through angels proved valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty,^{(A) 3} how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was confirmed for us by those who heard him,^{(B) 4} while God added his testimony by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will.^(C)

Exaltation through Abasement

⁵ Now God^[a] did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels.^{(D) 6} But someone has testified somewhere,

Now in subjecting all things to them, God^[f] left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them,^{(F) 9} but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower^[g] than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God^[h] he might taste death for everyone.^(G)

¹⁰ It was fitting that God,^[i] for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.^{(H) 11} For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father.^[j] For this reason Jesus^[k] is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,^{(I) 12} saying,

¹³ And again,

And again,

¹⁴ Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,^{(L) 15} and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.^{(M) 16} For it is clear that he did not come to help angels but the descendants of Abraham. ¹⁷ Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people.^{(N) 18} Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.^(O)