Ezekiel 37-39

Common English Bible

Valley of dry bones

37 The Lord’s power overcame me, and while I was in the Lord’s spirit, he led me out and set me down in the middle of a certain valley. It was full of bones. ² He led me through them all around, and I saw that there were a great many of them on the valley floor, and they were very dry.

³ He asked me, “Human one, can these bones live again?”

I said, “Lord God, only you know.”

⁴ He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, Dry bones, hear the Lord’s word! ⁵ The Lord God proclaims to these bones: I am about to put breath in you, and you will live again. ⁶ I will put sinews on you, place flesh on you, and cover you with skin. When I put breath in you, and you come to life, you will know that I am the Lord.”

⁷ I prophesied just as I was commanded. There was a great noise as I was prophesying, then a great quaking, and the bones came together, bone by bone. ⁸ When I looked, suddenly there were sinews on them. The flesh appeared, and then they were covered over with skin. But there was still no breath in them.

⁹ He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, human one! Say to the breath, The Lord God proclaims: Come from the four winds, breath! Breathe into these dead bodies and let them live.”

¹⁰ I prophesied just as he commanded me. When the breath entered them, they came to life and stood on their feet, an extraordinarily large company.

¹¹ He said to me, “Human one, these bones are the entire house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished. We are completely finished.’ ¹² So now, prophesy and say to them, The Lord God proclaims: I’m opening your graves! I will raise you up from your graves, my people, and I will bring you to Israel’s fertile land. ¹³ You will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you up from your graves, my people. ¹⁴ I will put my breath^[a] in you, and you will live. I will plant you on your fertile land, and you will know that I am the Lord. I’ve spoken, and I will do it. This is what the Lord says.”

Divided kingdom united

¹⁵ The Lord’s word came to me: ¹⁶ You, human one, take a stick, and write on it, “Belonging to Judah and to the Israelites associated with him.” Take another stick and write on it, “Stick of Ephraim belonging to Joseph and everyone of the house of Israel associated with him.” ¹⁷ Join them to each other to make a single stick so that they become one stick in your hand. ¹⁸ When your people ask you, “Why won’t you tell us what these sticks mean to you?” ¹⁹ say to them, The Lord God proclaims: I’m taking Joseph’s stick, which has been in Ephraim’s hand, and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I’m putting it with Judah’s stick, and I’m making them into a single stick so that they will be one stick in my hand. ²⁰ When the two sticks that you’ve written on are in your hand in their sight, ²¹ speak to them, This is what the Lord God says: I will take the Israelites from among the nations where they’ve gone, I will gather them from all around, and I will bring them to their fertile land. ²² I will make them into a single nation in the land on Israel’s highlands. There will be just one king for all of them. They will no longer be two nations, and they will no longer be divided into two kingdoms. ²³ They will no longer defile themselves with their idols or their worthless things or with any of their rebellions. I will deliver them from all the places where they sinned, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God. ²⁴ My servant David will be king over them. There will be just one shepherd for all of them. They will follow my case laws and carefully observe my regulations. ²⁵ They will live on the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where their ancestors lived. They will live on it, they and their children and their grandchildren, forever. My servant David will be their prince forever. ²⁶ I will make a covenant of peace for them. It will be their covenant forever. I will grant it to them and allow them to increase. I will set my sanctuary among them forever. ²⁷ My dwelling will be with them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. ²⁸ The nations will know that I, the Lord, make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.

Attack of Gog

38 The Lord’s word came to me: ² Human one, face Gog in the land of Magog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Prophesy concerning him ³ and say, The Lord God proclaims: I challenge you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal! ⁴ I will turn you about, set hooks in your jaws, and lead you out, you and all your army, horses and riders, handsomely dressed, all of them, a great assembly, with buckler and shield, all of them wielding swords. ⁵ Persia, Cush, and Put are with you,^[b] all of them equipped with shield and helmet. ⁶ Gomer and all his troops, Beth-togarmah from the far north and all his troops; many peoples are with you. ⁷ Stand ready and be prepared, you and all your assembly. You will watch out for those who gather against you.

⁸ After many days you will be called out. In future years you will enter a country that has been freed from the sword, a gathering from many peoples on the mountains of Israel, which had become a perpetual ruin. This country was brought out from the peoples, and all of them live securely. ⁹ You will invade like a sudden storm. You and all your troops, and the many peoples with you, will be like clouds covering the earth.

¹⁰ The Lord God proclaims: On that day, thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan. ¹¹ You will say, “I will go up against the open country and come against a quiet people who all live securely without walls, bars, or doors ¹² to take plunder and seize loot, to use my^[c] power against the resettled waste places, against a people gathered from the nations, who are acquiring goods and cattle, and who live at the center^[d] of the earth.” ¹³ Sheba and Dedan and the merchants and officials of Tarshish will say to you, “Have you come to take plunder and seize loot? Have you assembled your army to take silver and gold, to take goods and cattle, to engage in great looting?”

¹⁴ So now, prophesy, human one, and say to Gog, The Lord God proclaims: Isn’t that what you will decide to do^[e] on that day, when my people Israel live securely? ¹⁵ You will come up from your place from the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding horses, a great assembly, a mighty army. ¹⁶ You will go up against my people Israel like a cloud covering the earth. But when this happens in future days, I will be the one who brings you up against my land, so that the nations may know me, Gog, when through you I show my holiness in their sight!

¹⁷ The Lord God proclaims: Are you the one about whom I spoke in former times through my servants, Israel’s prophets, the ones who prophesied for years in those days to bring you against them? ¹⁸ On that day, the day when Gog comes against Israel’s fertile land, my wrath will be aroused. This is what the Lord God says. ¹⁹ In my jealousy and blazing anger I declare: On that day, a great quaking will come over Israel’s fertile land. ²⁰ The fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, all the creatures crawling on the ground, and every living human being will quake in my presence. Mountains will be thrown down and cliffs will crumble; every wall will fall to the ground. ²¹ I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains. This is what the Lord God says! The swords of the warriors will be against each other, ²² and I will enter into judgment with him, with plague and blood. I will pour out flooding rain, hailstones, fire, and sulfur on him, on all his troops, and on the many peoples with him. ²³ So I will display my greatness, show my holiness, and make myself known in the sight of many nations. And they will know that I am the Lord.

39 You, human one, prophesy about Gog and say, The Lord God proclaims: I challenge you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal! ² I will turn you about, drag you out, and bring you out of the far north, and I will bring you to Israel’s mountains. ³ I will strike your bow from your left hand, and make your arrows fall from your right. ⁴ You will fall on Israel’s mountains, you, all your troops, and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to the birds of prey, to every kind of bird and wild animal as food. ⁵ You will fall on the open field, for I have spoken! This is what the Lord God says! ⁶ I will send fire on Magog and on those who live securely in the coastlands, and they will know that I am the Lord. ⁷ I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. They will never again degrade my holy name, and the nations will know that I, the Lord, am holy in Israel. ⁸ Look, it has come! It has happened! This is what the Lord God says. This is the day that I spoke about.

⁹ Those who live in Israel’s cities will go out and kindle a fire with the weapons—shield and buckler, bow and arrow, spear and lance. They will burn them with fire for seven years. ¹⁰ They won’t gather wood from the field or chop down trees from the forest, because they will be able to keep the fire burning with the weapons. So they will take plunder and seize loot. This is what the Lord says.

¹¹ On that day, I will assign Gog a place for burial in Israel in the Travelers’ Valley east of the sea. It will block the travelers’ way, because Gog and all of his horde will be buried there. It will be called Hamon-gog^[f] Valley. ¹² For seven months, the house of Israel will bury them in order to cleanse the land. ¹³ All the people of the land will take part in the burial, so they will make a name for themselves on the day that I glorify myself. This is what the Lord God says. ¹⁴ They will appoint people who will continually cross through the land and bury^[g] the human remains that are left on the surface of the ground in order to purify it. They will begin their search at the end of seven months. ¹⁵ As the travelers cross through the land, when they see a human bone, they will set up a marker next to it until the gravediggers bury it in Hamon-gog Valley ¹⁶ (the name of the city is Hamonah). So they will purify the land.

¹⁷ And you, human one, the Lord God proclaims: Say to the birds of prey, to every kind of bird and every wild animal: Assemble and come! Come together from all around for the sacrifice that I make for you, a great sacrifice on Israel’s mountains! You will eat flesh and drink blood. ¹⁸ You will eat the flesh of warriors and drink the blood of the princes of the earth: rams, lambs, goats, bulls, all fattened animals from Bashan. ¹⁹ Gorge yourselves on their fat, and get drunk on their blood, from the sacrifice that I have made for you. ²⁰ Satisfy yourselves at my table with horses and riders, mighty men and every warrior. This is what the Lord God says! ²¹ When I glorify myself among the nations, all the nations will understand the judgments that I executed and the power that I used among them. ²² And the house of Israel will know that I, the Lord, am their God, from that day on. ²³ The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile because of their guilt. Because they rebelled against me, I hid my face from them. When I handed them over to their enemies, all of them fell by the sword. ²⁴ I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions and hid my face from them.

²⁵ So the Lord God proclaims: Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob. I will have compassion on the whole house of Israel and defend my holy name. ²⁶ They will forget their humiliation and all their rebellions against me when they live securely on their fertile land with no one to frighten them. ²⁷ When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their enemies, I will be made holy through them in the sight of the many nations. ²⁸ They will know that I am the Lord their God when, after I made them go into exile among the nations, I gathered them to their land. I won’t leave any of them behind. ²⁹ When I pour my Spirit upon the house of Israel, I won’t hide my face from them again. This is what the Lord God says.