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 had me pass among them all around, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and behold, they were very dry. ³ Then He said to me, “Son of man, ^(D)can these bones live?” And I answered, “Lord ^[b]God, ^(E)You Yourself know.” ⁴ Again He said to me, “^(F)Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘You dry bones, ^(G)hear the word of the Lord.’ ⁵ This is what the Lord God says to these bones: ‘Behold, I am going to make ^[c](H)breath enter you so that you may come to life. ⁶ And I will ^[d]attach tendons to you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin, and put breath in you so that you may come to life; 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 loud noise, and behold, a ^[e]rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ And I looked, and behold, tendons 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, ‘The Lord God says this: “Come from the four winds, breath, and ^(K)breathe on these slain, so that they ^(L)come to life.”’” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the ^(M)breath entered 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)entire house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our ^(P)bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are ^[f]completely ^(Q)cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am going to 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 And I will ^(S)put My ^[g]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 “Now 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)put them together for yourself one to another into one stick, so that they may become one in your hand. ¹⁸ And when the sons of your people speak to you, saying, ‘Will you not declare to us ^(X)what ^[h]you mean by these?’ ¹⁹ say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am going to 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 And say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am going to ^(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 offenses; but ^(AC)I will rescue them from all their ^[i]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 “And 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 ^[j]follow them. ²⁵ And they will live on the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and My servant ^(AF)David will be their leader forever. ²⁶ And I will make a ^(AG)covenant of peace with them; it will be an ^(AH)everlasting covenant with them. And I will ^[k]place them and ^(AI)multiply them, and set My ^(AJ)sanctuary in their midst forever. ²⁷ My ^(AK)dwelling place also will be among 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.”’”

Prophecy about Gog and Future Invasion of Israel

38 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, set your face toward ^(AN)Gog of the land of ^(AO)Magog, the ^(AP)chief prince of ^(AQ)Meshech and ^(AR)Tubal, and prophesy against him, ³ and say, ‘This is what the Lord ^[l]God says: “Behold, I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. ⁴ So I will turn you around and put hooks into your jaws, and I will ^(AS)bring you out, and all your army, ^(AT)horses and horsemen, all of them magnificently dressed, a great contingent with shield and ^[m]buckler, all of them wielding swords; ^5 (AU)Persia, ^[n](AV)Cush, and ^(AW)Put with them, all of them with buckler and helmet; ^6 (AX)Gomer with all its troops; ^(AY)Beth-togarmah from the remote parts of the north with all its troops—many peoples with you.

⁷ “^(AZ)Be ready, and be prepared, you and all your contingents that are assembled around you, and be a guard for them. ^8 (BA)After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been ^(BB)gathered from many ^[o]nations to the ^(BC)mountains of Israel which had been a continual place of ruins; but ^[p]its people were brought out from the ^[q]nations, and they are ^(BD)living securely, all of them. ⁹ And you will go up, you will come ^(BE)like a storm; you will be like a ^(BF)cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you.”

¹⁰ ‘This is what the Lord God says: “It will come about on that day, that ^[r]thoughts will come into your mind and you will ^(BG)devise an evil plan, ¹¹ and you will say, ‘I will go up against the land of ^[s](BH)unwalled villages. I will go against those who are ^(BI)at rest, who live securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates, ¹² to ^(BJ)capture spoils and to seize plunder, to turn your hand against the ruins that are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who live at the ^[t]center of the world.’ ^13 (BK)Sheba and ^(BL)Dedan and the merchants of ^(BM)Tarshish with all its ^[u]villages will say to you, ‘Have you come to capture spoils? Have you assembled your contingent to seize plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to capture great ^(BN)spoils?’”’

¹⁴ “Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “On that day when My people Israel are ^(BO)living securely, will you not know it? ^15 (BP)You will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding horses, a large assembly and a mighty army; ¹⁶ and you will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. It shall come about in the last days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may ^(BQ)know Me when I ^(BR)show Myself holy through you before their eyes, Gog.”

¹⁷ ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who ^(BS)prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them? ¹⁸ It will come about on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” declares the Lord God, “that My fury will mount up in My ^(BT)anger. ¹⁹ In My ^(BU)zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will certainly be a great ^[v](BV)earthquake in the land of Israel. ^20 (BW)The fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, all the crawling things that crawl on the earth, and all mankind who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence; and the ^(BX)mountains will be thrown down, the steep pathways will ^[w]collapse, and every wall will fall to the ground. ²¹ And I will call for a ^(BY)sword against ^[x]him on all My mountains,” declares the Lord God. “^(BZ)Every man’s sword will be against his brother. ²² With plague and with blood I will enter into ^(CA)judgment with him; and I will rain on him and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, ^[y]a torrential rain, ^(CB)hailstones, fire, and brimstone. ²³ So I will prove Myself great, show Myself holy, and ^(CC)make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the Lord.”’

^19 [a](A)You know this, ^(B)my beloved brothers and sisters. Now everyone must be quick to hear, ^(C)slow to speak, and ^(D)slow to anger; ²⁰ for a man’s ^(E)anger does not bring about the righteousness of God. ²¹ Therefore, ^(F)ridding yourselves of all filthiness and all ^[b]that remains of wickedness, in ^[c]humility receive ^(G)the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. ^22 (H)But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his ^[d]natural face ^(I)in a mirror; ²⁴ for once he has looked at himself and gone away, ^[e]he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. ²⁵ But one who has looked intently at the perfect law, ^(J)the law of freedom, and has continued in it, not having become a forgetful hearer but ^[f]an active doer, this person will be ^(K)blessed in ^[g]what he does.

²⁶ If anyone thinks himself to be religious, yet does not ^[h](L)bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this person’s religion is worthless. ²⁷ Pure and undefiled religion ^(M)in the sight of our God and Father is this: to ^(N)visit ^(O)orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained ^[i]by ^(P)the world.

The Sin of Partiality

2 ^(Q)My brothers and sisters, ^(R)do not hold your faith in our ^(S)glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of ^(T)personal favoritism. ² For if a man comes into your ^[j]assembly with a gold ring and is dressed in ^(U)bright clothes, and a poor man in ^(V)dirty clothes also comes in, ³ and you ^[k]pay special attention to the one who is wearing the ^(W)bright clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” ⁴ have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges ^(X)with evil ^[l]motives? ⁵ Listen, ^(Y)my beloved brothers and sisters: did ^(Z)God not choose the poor ^[m]of this world to be ^(AA)rich in faith and ^(AB)heirs of the kingdom which He ^(AC)promised to those who love Him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and ^[n]personally ^(AD)drag you into ^[o]court? ^7 (AE)Do they not blaspheme the good name ^[p]by which you have been called?

⁸ If, however, you ^(AF)are fulfilling the ^[q]royal law according to the Scripture, “^(AG)You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. ⁹ But if you ^(AH)show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the Law as violators. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole Law, yet ^(AI)stumbles in one point, has become ^(AJ)guilty of all. ¹¹ For He who said, “^(AK)Do not commit adultery,” also said, “^(AL)Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do murder, you have become a violator of the Law. ¹² So speak, and so act, as those who are to be judged by ^(AM)the law of freedom. ¹³ For ^(AN)judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy ^[r]triumphs over judgment.

Faith and Works

^14 (AO)What use is it, ^(AP)my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can ^[s]that faith save him? ^15 (AQ)If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “^(AR)Go in peace, ^[t]be warmed and be filled,” yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? ¹⁷ In the same way, ^(AS)faith also, if it has no works, is ^[u]dead, being by itself.

A Psalm of Praise.

Warnings and Instructions