Ezekiel 37

The Valley of Dry Bones

37The hand of the Lord was on me,^x and he brought me out by the Spirit^y of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley;^z it was full of bones.^{a 2}He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. ³He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.^b”

⁴Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!^{c 5}This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath^a enter you, and you will come to life.^{d 6}I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.^e’ ”

⁷So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

⁹Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath;^f prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds^g and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” ¹⁰So I prophesied as he commanded^h me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.ⁱ

¹¹Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’^{j 12}Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel.^{k 13}Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord,^l when I open your graves and bring you up from them.^{m 14}I will put my Spiritⁿ in you and you will live, and I will settle^o you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.^p’ ”

One Nation Under One King

¹⁵The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁶“Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, ‘Belonging to Judah and the Israelites^q associated with him.^r’ Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, ‘Belonging to Joseph (that is, to Ephraim) and all the Israelites associated with him.’ ¹⁷Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand.^s

¹⁸“When your people ask you, ‘Won’t you tell us what you mean by this?’^{t 19}say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph—which is in Ephraim’s hand—and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah’s stick. I will make them into a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.’^{u 20}Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on ²¹and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land.^{v 22}I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel.^w There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms.^{x 23}They will no longer defile^y themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding,^bz and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.^a

²⁴“ ‘My servant David^b will be king^c over them, and they will all have one shepherd.^d They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees.^{e 25}They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived.^f They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever,^g and David my servant will be their prince forever.^{h 26}I will make a covenant of peaceⁱ with them; it will be an everlasting covenant.^j I will establish them and increase their numbers,^k and I will put my sanctuary among them^l forever.^{m 27}My dwelling placeⁿ will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.^{o 28}Then the nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy,^p when my sanctuary is among them forever.^q’ ”