Dry Bones Live

37 The hand of Adonai was upon me. The Ruach Adonai carried me out and set me down in the middle of the valley. It was full of bones. ² He led me all around them. Behold, there were very many on the floor of the valley. Behold, they were very dry. ³ Then He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”^[a]

I answered, “Adonai Elohim, You know.”

⁴ “Prophesy over these bones,” He said to me. “Say to them: ‘Dry bones, hear the word of Adonai!’ ⁵ Thus says Adonai Elohim to these bones: “Behold, I will cause Ruach^[b] to enter you, so you will live. ⁶ I will attach tendons to you, bring flesh on you and cover you with skin. Then I will put breath in you. You will live. You will know that I am Adonai.”

⁷ So I prophesied just as I was commanded. As I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, an earthquake. Then the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ I saw, and behold, there were tendons on them, flesh came up and skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the Ruach. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the Ruach, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Come from the four winds, Ruach! Breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” ¹⁰ So I prophesied just as He commanded me. The Ruach came into them and they lived. They stood up on their feet, a vast army.

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; our hope is lost; we are cut off—by ourselves.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I will open your graves. I will bring you up out of your graves, My people. I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ You will know that I am Adonai, when I have opened your graves and brought you up out of your graves, My people. ¹⁴ I will put My Ruach in you and you will live. I will place you in your own land. Then you will know that I, Adonai, have spoken and that I have done it.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

Reunification of Southern and Northern Kingdoms

¹⁵ The word of Adonai came to me saying: ¹⁶ “You, son of man, take one stick and write on it, ‘For Judah’—for Bnei-Yisrael joined with him. Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph’—the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel joined with him. ¹⁷ Join them one to another for yourself, as one stick, so they may become one in your hand.

¹⁸ “When the children of your people speak to you saying, ‘Won’t you tell us what you mean by these?’ ¹⁹ say to them, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph—which is in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel joined with him—and I will put them together with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick. They will be one in My hand.’ ²⁰ The sticks that you write on will be in your hand before their eyes.

²¹ “Then say to them, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I will take Bnei-Yisrael from among the nations, where they have gone. I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land. ²² I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will be king to them all. They will no longer be two nations and never again be divided into two kingdoms. ²³ They will never again be defiled with their idols, their detestable things or with any of their transgressions. I will save them out of all their dwellings in which they sinned. I will purify them. Then they will be My people and I will be their God. ²⁴ My servant David will be king over them. They will all have One Shepherd. They will walk in My ordinances and observe My rulings and do them. ²⁵ They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your ancestors lived. They will live there—they, their children and their children’s children, forever, and My servant David will be their prince forever. ²⁶ I will cut a covenant of shalom with them—it will be an everlasting covenant with them. I will give to them and multiply them. I will set up My Sanctuary among them forever. ^{[c] 27} My dwelling-place will be over them. I will be their God and they will be My people. ²⁸ Then the nations will know that I am Adonai who sanctifies Israel, when My Sanctuary is in their midst forever.’”

Gog’s Alliance Invades Israel

38 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.^[d] Prophesy against him ³ and say, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. ⁴ I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws. I will bring you out, with all your army, horses and horsemen—all of them splendidly dressed—a vast assembly with breastplate and shield, all of them wielding swords. ⁵ With them will be Persia, Cush and Put, all of them with shield and helmet, ⁶ Gomer and all his troops, the house of Togarmah from the extreme north and all his troops—many peoples with you.

⁷ “‘Be prepared, prepare yourself, you and all your company gathered around you. Be a guard for them. ⁸ After many days you will be summoned. In the latter years, you will come against the land that has been brought back from the sword and regathered from many peoples on the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste. But they were brought out from the peoples. When all of them are dwelling securely, ⁹ you will come up, you will come like a storm, you will be like a cloud covering the land—you and all your troops and many peoples with you.’”

¹⁰ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “It will come to pass in that day that things will come into your heart and you will devise an evil plan. ¹¹ You will say, ‘I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will fall upon the quiet people who live securely, all of them living without walls, having no bars or gates, ¹² in order to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places now inhabited and against the people gathered from the nations, who have been acquiring livestock and property, who live in the center of the world.’

¹³ “Sheba, Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its young lions will say to you: ‘Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your company to plunder? To carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and property, to make off with immense spoils?’

¹⁴ “Therefore, son of man, prophesy, say to Gog, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘In that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know? ¹⁵ You will come from your place out of the extreme north—you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and mighty army. ¹⁶ You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud covering the land. It will happen in the last days. I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me—when I am sanctified through you, Gog, before their eyes.’”

¹⁷ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “Are you the one that I spoke about in former times through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them? ¹⁸ In that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“My fury will rise up in My nostrils. ¹⁹ In My jealousy and the fire of My wrath I have spoken! Surely in that day there will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. ²⁰ The fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that creep upon the ground and all humans upon the face of the earth will shake at My presence. The mountains will be thrown down. The steep places will fall. Every wall will fall to the ground. ²¹ I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“every man’s sword will be against his brother. ²² I will punish him with pestilence and blood. I will pour out rain on him, on his troops and on the many peoples with him, a torrential rain, with hailstones, fire and brimstone. ²³ So I will magnify and sanctify Myself. I will make Myself known in the eyes of many nations, and they will know that I am Adonai.”

Quick to Listen, Slow to Anger

¹⁹ Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger^[a]— ²⁰ for human anger doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. ²¹ So put away all moral filth and excess of evil and receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

²² But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror— ²⁴ for once he looks at himself and goes away, he immediately forgets what sort of person he was. ²⁵ But the one who looks intently into the perfect Torah, the Torah that gives freedom, and continues in it, not becoming a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts—he shall be blessed in what he does.

²⁶ If anyone thinks he is religious and yet does not bridle his tongue^[b] but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is futile. ²⁷ Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress,^[c] and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Honor the Poor Person

2 My brothers and sisters, do not hold the faith of our glorious Lord Yeshua the Messiah while showing favoritism. ^{[d] 2} For if a man with a gold ring and fine clothes comes into your synagogue, and a poor person in filthy clothes also comes in; ³ and you pay special attention to the one wearing the fine clothing and you say, “Sit here in a good place”; and you say to the poor person, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my footstool”; ⁴ haven’t you made distinctions between yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers and sisters. Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom that He promised to those who love Him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor person. Isn’t it the rich who oppress you and drag you into court? ⁷ Don’t they blaspheme the good name by which you were called? ⁸ If, however, you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well. ⁹ But if you show favoritism, you are committing sin and are convicted by the Torah as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole Torah but stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. ¹¹ For the one who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the Torah. ^{[e] 12} So speak and act as those who will be judged according to a Torah that gives freedom. ¹³ For judgment is merciless to the one who does not show mercy.^[f] Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Show Faith with Works

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can such faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in shalom, keep warm and well fed,” but you do not give them what the body needs, what good is that? ¹⁷ So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.

Praise Him, All You Nations

Psalm 117

Confidence, Discernment, Integrity