Chronological

Prophecy Against Edom

35 The Lord spoke his word to me. He said: ² “Human being, look toward Mount Edom and prophesy against it. ³ Say to it: ‘This is what the Lord God says: I am against you, Mount Edom. I will stretch out my hand against you. And I will make you an empty desert. ⁴ I will destroy your cities. And you will become empty. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

⁵ “‘This is because you have always been an enemy of Israel. You let them be defeated in war when they were in trouble. It was the time of their final punishment. ⁶ So the Lord God says, As surely as I live, I will let you be murdered. Murder will chase you. You did not hate murdering people, so murder will chase you. ⁷ And I will make Mount Edom an empty ruin. And I will destroy everyone who goes in or comes out of it. ⁸ I will fill its mountains with those who are killed. Those killed in war will fall on your hills. They will fall in your valleys and in all your ravines. ⁹ I will make you a ruin forever. No one will live in your cities. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

¹⁰ “‘You said, “These two nations, Israel and Judah, and these two lands will be ours. We will take them for our own.” But the Lord was there. ¹¹ So this is what the Lord God says: As surely as I live, this is true. I will treat you just as you treated them. When you were angry and jealous, you acted hatefully against them. I will punish you. And that is how I will show the Israelites who I am. ¹² Then you will know that I, the Lord God, have heard all your insults. Those insults were against the mountains of Israel. You said, “They have been ruined. They have been given to us to eat.” ¹³ You have not stopped your proud talk against me. I have heard you. ¹⁴ This is what the Lord God says: All the earth will be happy when I make you an empty ruin. ¹⁵ You were happy when the land of Israel was ruined. But I will do the same thing to you. Mount Edom and all Edom, you will become an empty ruin. Then you will know that I am the Lord God.’”

Israel to Come Home

36 “Human being, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say: ‘Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord. ² This is what the Lord God says: The enemy has said this against you: “Now the old places to worship false gods have become ours.”’ ³ So prophesy and say: ‘This is what the Lord God says: They have made you an empty ruin. They have crushed you from all around. You belonged to the other nations. People talked and whispered against you. ⁴ So, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. The Lord God speaks to the mountains, hills, ravines and valleys. And he speaks to the empty ruins and abandoned cities that have been robbed and laughed at by the other nations. ⁵ This is what the Lord God says: I have spoken in hot anger against the other nations. I have spoken against Edom. The Edomites took my land for themselves. They did this with joy and with hate in their hearts. They forced out the people and took their pastureland.’ ⁶ So prophesy about the land of Israel. Say to the mountains, hills, ravines and valleys: ‘This is what the Lord God says: I speak in my jealous anger. This is because you have suffered the insults of the nations. ⁷ So this is what the Lord God says: I promise that the nations around you will also have to suffer insults.

⁸ “‘But you, mountains of Israel, you will grow branches and fruit for my people. My people will soon come home. ⁹ I am concerned about you. I am for you. You will be plowed, and seed will be planted in you. ¹⁰ I will multiply the people who live on you. All the people of Israel will come. The cities will have people living in them. The ruins will be rebuilt. ¹¹ I will make the people and animals living on you increase in number. They will grow and be fruitful. You will have people living on you as you did before. I will make you better off than at the beginning. Then you will know that I am the Lord. ¹² I will cause my people Israel to walk on you. Then they will take you, and you will belong to them. You will never again take their children away from them.

¹³ “‘This is what the Lord God says: People say about you: “You eat people and take children from your nation.” ¹⁴ You will not destroy people anymore. You will not make your nation stumble anymore, says the Lord God. ¹⁵ I will not make you listen to insults from the nations anymore. You will not suffer shame from them anymore, says the Lord God.’”

The Lord Acts for Himself

¹⁶ The Lord spoke his word to me again. He said: ¹⁷ “Human being, the nation of Israel was living in their own land. But they made it unclean by their ways and the things they did. Their ways were like a woman’s uncleanness in her time of monthly bleeding. ¹⁸ So I poured out my anger against them. I did it because of the murders they did in the land. And I did it because they made the land unclean with their idols. ¹⁹ I scattered them among the nations. And they were spread through all the countries. I punished them for how they lived and the things they did. ²⁰ They dishonored my holy name in the nations where they went. The nations said about them: ‘These are the people of the Lord. But they had to leave the land which he gave them.’ ²¹ But I felt bad about my holy name. The nation of Israel had dishonored it among the nations where they went.

²² “So say to the people of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord God says: Israel, I am going to act, but not for your sake. Israel, I will do something to help my holy name. You have dishonored it among the nations where you went. ²³ I will prove the holiness of my great name. It has been dishonored among the nations. You have dishonored it among these nations. But the nations will know that I am the Lord. I will prove myself holy before their eyes, says the Lord God.

²⁴ “‘I will take you from the nations. I will gather you out of all the lands. And I will bring you back into your own land. ²⁵ Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and your idols. ²⁶ Also, I will teach you to respect me completely. I will put a new way to think inside you. I will take out the stubborn heart like stone from your bodies. And I will give you an obedient heart of flesh. ²⁷ I will put my Spirit inside you. And I will help you live by my rules. You will be careful to obey my laws. ²⁸ Then you will live in the land I gave to your ancestors. So you will be my people, and I will be your God. ²⁹ Also, I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will command the grain to come and grow. I will not allow a time of hunger to hurt you. ³⁰ I will multiply the harvest of the field. You will never again suffer shame among the nations because of hunger. ³¹ And you will remember your evil ways and the things you did that were not good. Then you will hate yourselves because of your sins and terrible acts that I hate. ³² I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, says the Lord God. Be ashamed and embarrassed about your ways, Israel.

³³ “‘This is what the Lord God says: This is what will happen on the day I cleanse you from all your sins: I will cause the cities to have people living in them again. And the destroyed places will be rebuilt. ³⁴ The empty land will be plowed. It will no longer be a ruin for everyone who passes by to see. ³⁵ They will say: “This land was ruined. Now it has become like the garden of Eden. The cities were destroyed. They were empty and ruined. But now they are protected and have people living in them.” ³⁶ Then those nations still around you will know. They will know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt what was destroyed. And I have planted what was empty. I, the Lord, have spoken. And I will do it.’

³⁷ “This is what the Lord God says: I will again be asked by the people of Israel to do this thing for them. I will make their people grow to be as many as a flock of sheep. ³⁸ They will be like the flocks brought to Jerusalem during her holy feasts. Her ruined cities will be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

The Vision of Dry Bones

37 I felt the power of the Lord was on me. He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord. And he put me down in the middle of a valley. It was full of bones. ² The Lord led me around among the bones. There were many bones on the bottom of the valley. I saw the bones were very dry. ³ Then he asked me, “Human being, can these bones live?”

I answered, “Lord God, only you know.”

⁴ The Lord said to me, “Prophesy to these bones. Say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵ This is what the Lord God says to the bones: I will cause breath to enter you. Then you will live. ⁶ I will put muscles on you. I will put flesh on you. I will cover you with skin. Then I will put breath in you, and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. While I prophesied, there was a noise and a rattling. The bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ I looked and saw muscles come on the bones. Flesh grew, and skin covered the bones. But there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then the Lord said to me, “Prophesy to the wind.^[a] Prophesy, human being, and say to the wind: ‘This is what the Lord God says: Wind, come from the four winds. Breathe on these people who were killed so they can live again.’” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as the Lord commanded me. And the breath came into them, and they came to life. They stood on their feet. They were a very large army.

¹¹ Then the Lord said to me: “Human being, these bones are like all the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has gone. We are destroyed.’ ¹² So, prophesy, and say to them: ‘This is what the Lord God says: My people, I will open your graves. And I will cause you to come up out of your graves. Then I will bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ This is how you, my people, will know that I am the Lord. I will open your graves and cause you to come up from them. ¹⁴ And I will put my Spirit inside you. You will come to life. Then I will put you in your own land. And you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it, says the Lord.’”

Judah and Israel Back Together

¹⁵ The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ¹⁶ “Human being, take a stick of wood. Write on it, ‘For Judah and all the Israelites with him.’ Then take another stick of wood. Write on it, ‘The stick of Ephraim, for Joseph and all the Israelites with him.’ ¹⁷ Then join them together into one stick. Then they will be one in your hand.

¹⁸ “Your people will say to you, ‘Explain to us what you mean by this.’ ¹⁹ Tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I will take the stick which is for Joseph and the tribes of Israel with him. This stick is in the hand of Ephraim. Then I will put it with the stick of Judah. And I will make them into one stick. And they will be one in my hand.’ ²⁰ Hold the sticks of wood on which you wrote these names. Hold them in your hands so the people can see them. ²¹ Say to the people: ‘This is what the Lord God says: I will take the people of Israel from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around. I will bring them into their own land. ²² I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. One king will rule all of them. They will never again be two nations. They will not be divided into two kingdoms anymore. ²³ They will not continue to make themselves unclean by their idols, their statues of gods which I hate or their sins. But I will save them from all the ways they sin and turn against me. And I will make them clean. Then they will be my people. And I will be their God.

²⁴ “‘And my servant David will be their king. They will all have one shepherd. They will live by my rules and obey my laws. ²⁵ They will live on the land I gave to my servant Jacob. It is the land in which your ancestors lived. They will all live on the land forever: they, their children and their grandchildren. David my servant will be their king forever. ²⁶ And I will make an agreement of peace with them. It will be an agreement that continues forever. I will put them in their land. I will make them grow in number. Then I will put my Temple among them forever. ²⁷ The place where I live will be with them. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ²⁸ When my Temple is among them forever, the nations will know that I, the Lord, make Israel holy.’”