The Dry Bones Live

37 The ^(A)hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out ^(B)in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. ² Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. ³ And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

So I answered, “O Lord God, ^(C)You know.”

⁴ Again 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: “Surely I will ^(D)cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. ⁶ I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. ^(E)Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.

⁹ Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the ^[a]breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: ^(F)“Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” ’ ” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as He commanded me, ^(G)and ^[b]breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

¹¹ Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the ^(H)whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ^(I)‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, ^(J)O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and ^(K)bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. ¹⁴ I ^(L)will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,” says the Lord.’ ”

One Kingdom, One King

¹⁵ Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ¹⁶ “As for you, son of man, ^(M)take a stick for yourself and write on it: ‘For Judah and for ^(N)the children of Israel, his companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.’ ¹⁷ Then ^(O)join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.

¹⁸ “And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, ^(P)‘Will you not show us what you mean by these?’— ^19 (Q)say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take ^(R)the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.” ’ ²⁰ And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand ^(S)before their eyes.

²¹ “Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely ^(T)I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; ²² and ^(U)I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and ^(V)one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. ^23 (W)They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but ^(X)I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

^24 (Y)“David My servant shall be king over them, and ^(Z)they shall all have one shepherd; ^(AA)they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. ^25 (AB)Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children, ^(AC)forever; and ^(AD)My servant David shall be their prince forever. ²⁶ Moreover I will ^[c]make ^(AE)a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and ^(AF)multiply them, and I will set My ^(AG)sanctuary in their midst forevermore. ^27 (AH)My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be ^(AI)their God, and they shall be My people. ^28 (AJ)The nations also will know that I, the Lord, ^(AK)sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.” ’ ”

Gog and Allies Attack Israel

38 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ^2 (AL)“Son of man, ^(AM)set your face against ^(AN)Gog, of the land of ^(AO)Magog, ^[d]the prince of Rosh, ^(AP)Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, ³ and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. ^4 (AQ)I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and ^(AR)lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, ^(AS)all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. ⁵ Persia, ^[e]Ethiopia, and ^[f]Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; ^6 (AT)Gomer and all its troops; the house of ^(AU)Togarmah from the far north and all its troops—many people are with you.

^7 (AV)“Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them. ^8 (AW)After many days ^(AX)you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword ^(AY)and gathered from many people on ^(AZ)the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them ^(BA)dwell safely. ⁹ You will ascend, coming ^(BB)like a storm, covering the ^(BC)land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”

¹⁰ ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: ¹¹ You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of ^(BD)unwalled villages; I will ^(BE)go to a peaceful people, ^(BF)who dwell ^[g]safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’— ¹² to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, ^(BG)and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land. ^13 (BH)Sheba, ^(BI)Dedan, the merchants ^(BJ)of Tarshish, and all ^(BK)their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’ ” ’

¹⁴ “Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, ‘Thus says the Lord God: ^(BL)“On that day when My people Israel ^(BM)dwell safely, will you not know it? ^15 (BN)Then you will come from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. ¹⁶ You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may ^(BO)know Me, when I am ^(BP)hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes.” ¹⁷ Thus says the Lord God: “Are you he of whom I have spoken in former days by My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied for years in those days that I would bring you against them?

Judgment on Gog

¹⁸ “And it will come to pass at the same time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” says the Lord God, “that My fury will show in My face. ¹⁹ For ^(BQ)in My jealousy ^(BR)and in the fire of My wrath I have spoken: ^(BS)‘Surely in that day there shall be a great ^[h]earthquake in the land of Israel, ²⁰ so that ^(BT)the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all men who are on the face of the earth shall shake at My presence. ^(BU)The mountains shall be thrown down, the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.’ ²¹ I will ^(BV)call for ^(BW)a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains,” says the Lord God. ^(BX)“Every man’s sword will be against his brother. ²² And I will ^(BY)bring him to judgment with ^(BZ)pestilence and bloodshed; ^(CA)I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, ^(CB)great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. ²³ Thus I will magnify Myself and ^(CC)sanctify Myself, ^(CD)and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.” ’

Qualities Needed in Trials

^19 [a]So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, ^(A)slow to speak, ^(B)slow to wrath; ²⁰ for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Doers—Not Hearers Only

²¹ Therefore ^(C)lay aside all filthiness and ^[b]overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, ^(D)which is able to save your souls.

²² But ^(E)be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For ^(F)if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴ for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. ²⁵ But ^(G)he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, ^(H)this one will be blessed in what he does.

²⁶ If anyone ^[c]among you thinks he is religious, and ^(I)does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. ^27 (J)Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: ^(K)to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, ^(L)and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Beware of Personal Favoritism

2 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, ^(M)the Lord of glory, with ^(N)partiality. ² For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in ^[d]fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in ^[e]filthy clothes, ³ and you ^[f]pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” ⁴ have you not ^[g]shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵ Listen, my beloved brethren: ^(O)Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be ^(P)rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom ^(Q)which He promised to those who love Him? ⁶ But ^(R)you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you ^(S)and drag you into the courts? ⁷ Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are ^(T)called?

⁸ If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ^(U)“You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; ⁹ but if you ^[h]show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as ^(V)transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet ^(W)stumble in one point, ^(X)he is guilty of all. ¹¹ For He who said, ^(Y)“Do not commit adultery,” also said, ^(Z)“Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹² So speak and so do as those who will be judged by ^(AA)the law of liberty. ¹³ For ^(AB)judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown ^(AC)no ^(AD)mercy. ^(AE)Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith Without Works Is Dead^(AF)

^14 (AG)What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? ^15 (AH)If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, ¹⁶ and ^(AI)one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? ¹⁷ Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Let All Peoples Praise the Lord

The Righteous Are Bold as a Lion