The Daily Audio Bible
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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)
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”;(K) 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[e] and make them one stick, in order that they may be one in my hand.”(L) 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.(M) 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.(N) 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[f] and will cleanse them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.(O)
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.(P) 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.(Q) 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will bless[g] them and multiply them and will set my sanctuary among them forevermore.(R) 27 My dwelling place shall be over them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.(S) 28 Then the nations shall know that I the Lord sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is among them forevermore.”(T)
Invasion by Gog
38 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 Mortal, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Prophesy against him(U) 3 and say: Thus says the Lord God: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; 4 I will turn you around and put hooks into your jaws, and I will lead you out with all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company, all of them with shield and buckler, wielding swords.(V) 5 Paras, Cush, and Put are with them, all of them with buckler and helmet;(W) 6 Gomer and all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remotest parts of the north with all its troops—many peoples are with you.(X)
7 Be ready and keep ready, you and all the companies that are assembled around you, and take command of them.[h] 8 After many days you shall be mustered; in the latter years you shall go against a land restored from war, a land where people were gathered from many nations on the mountains of Israel, which had long lain waste; its people were brought out from the nations and now are living in safety, all of them.(Y) 9 You shall advance, coming on like a storm; you shall be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.(Z)
10 Thus says the Lord God: On that day thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme.(AA) 11 You will say, “I will go up against the land of unwalled villages; I will fall upon the quiet people who live in safety, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates,(AB) 12 to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to assail the waste places that are now inhabited and the people who were gathered from the nations, who are acquiring cattle and goods, who live at the center[i] of the earth.”(AC) 13 Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its young warriors[j] will say to you, “Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your horde to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to seize a great amount of spoil?”(AD)
14 Therefore, mortal, prophesy and say to Gog: Thus says the Lord God: On that day when my people Israel are living securely, you will rouse yourself[k](AE) 15 and come from your place out of the remotest parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army;(AF) 16 you will come up against my people Israel like a cloud covering the earth. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I display my holiness before their eyes.(AG)
Judgment on Gog
17 Thus says the Lord God: Are you he of whom I spoke in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel, who in those days prophesied for years that I would bring you against them?(AH) 18 On that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel, says the Lord God, my wrath shall be aroused.(AI) 19 For in my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare: On that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;(AJ) 20 the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and the animals of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground and all humans who are on the face of the earth shall quake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground.(AK) 21 I will summon the sword against Gog[l] in[m] all my mountains, says the Lord God; the swords of all will be against their comrades.(AL) 22 With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him, and I will pour down torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur upon him and his troops and the many peoples who are with him.(AM) 23 So I will display my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.(AN)
Hearing and Doing the Word
19 You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger,(A) 20 for human anger does not produce God’s righteousness.[a] 21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.(B)
22 But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.(C) 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves[b] in a mirror;(D) 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.(E)
26 If any think they are religious and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.(F) 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.(G)
Warning against Partiality
2 My brothers and sisters, do not claim the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory while showing partiality.(H) 2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here in a good place, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit by my footstool,”(I) 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?(J) 6 But you have dishonored the poor person. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into the courts?(K) 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well.(L) 9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.(M) 11 For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but you murder, you have become a transgressor of[c] the law.(N) 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.(O) 13 For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.(P)
Faith without Works Is Dead
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it?(Q) 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food(R) 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
28 The wicked flee when no one pursues,
but the righteous are as bold as a lion.(A)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.