Old/New Testament

The Valley of Dry Bones

37 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, ² and He caused me to pass among them all around. And there were very many in the open valley. And they were very dry. ³ He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”

⁴ Again He said to me, “Prophesy over 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 to enter you so that you live. ⁶ And I will lay sinews upon you and will grow back flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you so that you live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.”

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a noise and a shaking. And the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ When I looked, the sinews and the flesh grew upon them, and the skin covered them. But there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the wind; prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain so that they live.” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

¹¹ Then He said to me, “Son of man, 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.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Pay attention, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves. ¹⁴ And I shall put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I the Lord have spoken and performed it, says the Lord.”

Israel and Judah Unite

¹⁵ The word of the Lord came again to me, saying: ¹⁶ Moreover, son of man, take one stick and write on it: “For Judah and for the sons of Israel his companions.” Then take another stick and write on it, “For Joseph the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions.” ¹⁷ Then join them to one another into one stick so that they become one in your hand.

¹⁸ When the sons of your people speak to you, saying, “Will you not show us what you mean by these things?” ¹⁹ say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions, and will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick; and they shall be one in My hand. ²⁰ The sticks on which you write shall be in your hand before their eyes. ²¹ Say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone and will gather them on every side and bring them into their own land. ²² And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all. And they shall be two nations no more, nor shall they be divided into two kingdoms anymore. ²³ Nor shall they defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions. But I will save them out of all their dwelling places in which they have sinned and will cleanse them. So they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

²⁴ David My servant shall be king over them. And they all shall have one shepherd. They shall also walk in My judgments, and observe My statutes and do them. ²⁵ They shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived. And they shall dwell in it, they and their sons and their son’s sons forever. And My servant David shall be their prince forever. ²⁶ Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them and will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. ²⁷ My tabernacle also shall be with them. Indeed, I will be their God and they shall be My people. ²⁸ The nations shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.

A Prophecy Against Gog

38 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ² Son of man, set your face against Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshek and Tubal, and prophesy against him, ³ and say: Thus says the Lord God: I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshek and Tubal. ⁴ And I will turn you back and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses, and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords. ⁵ Persia, Ethiopia, and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet. ⁶ I will do so to Gomer and all its troops, Beth Togarmah of the north quarters and all its troops, and many peoples with you.

⁷ Be prepared and prepare yourself, you and all your companies that are assembled to you, and be a guard to them. ⁸ After many days you shall be called. In the latter years you shall come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered out of many peoples, against the mountains of Israel which had been always a waste. But its people were brought out of the nations, and they, all of them, are dwelling safely. ⁹ You shall ascend and come like a storm; you shall be like a cloud to cover the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you.

¹⁰ Thus says the Lord God: It shall come to pass on that day that things shall come into your mind and you shall think an evil thought, ¹¹ and you shall say, “I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go against those who are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates,” ¹² to take spoil and to seize prey, to turn your hand against the desolate places that are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered out of the nations, who have obtained livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the world. ¹³ Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its villages shall say to you, “Have you come to take spoil? Have you gathered your company to seize prey, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great spoil?”

¹⁴ Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: Thus says the Lord God: On that day when My people of Israel dwell safely, shall you not know it? ¹⁵ And you shall come from your place out of the north parts, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. ¹⁶ And you shall come up against My people of Israel as a cloud to cover the land. It shall come about in the latter days that I will bring you against My land so that the nations may know Me when I shall be sanctified in you, O Gog, before their eyes.

Judgment on Gog

¹⁷ Thus says the Lord God: Are you he of whom I have spoken in former days by My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them? ¹⁸ And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog comes against the land of Israel, says the Lord God, that My fury shall come up in My anger. ¹⁹ For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath I have spoken: Surely in that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. ²⁰ The fish of the sea and the fowl of the heavens and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep upon the earth and all the men who are upon the face of the earth shall shake at My presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. ²¹ I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains, says the Lord God. Every man’s sword shall be against his brother. ²² I will enter into judgment with him with pestilence and with blood. And I will rain upon him and upon his troops and upon the many peoples who are with him, an overflowing rain and hailstones, fire and brimstone. ²³ Thus I will magnify Myself, and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.

The Destruction of Gog’s Armies

39 Moreover you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: Thus says the Lord God: I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshek, and Tubal. ² And I will turn you back, drive you on, and take you up the north parts and bring you against the mountains of Israel. ³ And I will strike your bow out of your left hand and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand. ⁴ You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. ⁵ You shall fall upon the open field. For I have spoken, says the Lord God. ⁶ I will send a fire on Magog and among those who dwell safely in the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.

⁷ So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel. And I will not let them pollute My holy name anymore. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. ⁸ It is coming and it shall be done, says the Lord God. This is the day of which I have spoken.

⁹ Those who dwell in the cities of Israel shall go and make fires with the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the war clubs and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire for seven years. ¹⁰ They shall take no wood out of the field, or cut down any out of the forests, for they shall make fires with the weapons. And they shall despoil those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, says the Lord God.

The Burial of Gog

¹¹ It shall come to pass in that day that I will give to Gog a place of graves there in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea, and it shall stop the passengers. And there they shall bury Gog and all his multitude, and they shall call it the Valley of Hamon Gog.

¹² For seven months the house of Israel shall be burying them so that they may cleanse the land. ¹³ Indeed, all the people of the land shall bury them. And it shall be their renown on the day that I shall be glorified, says the Lord God. ¹⁴ They shall separate men who continually pass through the land to bury the passengers, even those who remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it.

After the end of seven months they shall search. ¹⁵ As the passengers pass through the land and anyone sees a man’s bone, then he shall set up a sign by it until the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. ¹⁶ Also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus they shall cleanse the land.

¹⁷ As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God: Speak to every kind of fowl and to every beast of the field: Assemble and come. Gather on every side to My sacrifice that I sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. ¹⁸ You shall eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the officials of the earth as though of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. ¹⁹ You shall eat fat until you are full and drink blood until you are drunk from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. ²⁰ Thus you shall be filled at My table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all the men of war, says the Lord God.

²¹ I will set My glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see My judgment that I have executed, and My hand that I have laid upon them. ²² So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward. ²³ The nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they trespassed against Me, and I hid My face from them. And I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and all of them fell by the sword. ²⁴ According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions, I have done to them and hid My face from them.

The Restoration of Israel

²⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel and will be jealous for My holy name. ²⁶ They shall forget their shame and all their trespasses by which they have trespassed against Me when they lived safely in their land and no one made them afraid. ²⁷ When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of the lands of their enemies, then I shall be sanctified in them in the sight of many nations. ²⁸ Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God who caused them to be led into captivity among the nations, and then gathered them again to their own land and have left none of them there anymore. ²⁹ Nor will I hide My face from them anymore. For I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord God.

False Prophets and Teachers^(A)

2 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. ² And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. ³ And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their judgment, made long ago, does not linger, and their destruction does not slumber.

⁴ For if God did not spare the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be kept for judgment; ⁵ and if He did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶ and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, making them an example to those afterward who would live ungodly lives; ⁷ and if He delivered righteous Lot, who was distressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked ⁸ (for that righteous man lived among them, and what he saw and heard of their lawless deeds tormented his righteous soul day after day); ⁹ then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the Day of Judgment, ¹⁰ especially those who walk after the flesh in pursuit of unclean desires, and despise authority.

They are presumptuous and arrogant, and are not afraid to slander the angelic beings. ¹¹ Whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring slanderous accusations against them before the Lord. ¹² But these people are like irrational animals, born to be captured and destroyed. They speak evil of the things that they do not understand, and in their corruption they will be destroyed.

¹³ They shall receive the wages of unrighteousness. They count it a pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes who revel in their own deception while they carouse together with you. ¹⁴ They have eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin. They entice unstable souls. Their hearts are trained in greed. They are cursed children! ¹⁵ They have forsaken the right way and have gone astray. They follow the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness, ¹⁶ but who was rebuked for his iniquity. The mute donkey speaking with a man’s voice constrained the madness of the prophet.

¹⁷ These men are wells without water and clouds that are carried by a storm, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved forever. ¹⁸ For when they speak arrogant words of vanity, they entice by the lusts of the flesh and by depravity those who barely escaped from those who live in error. ¹⁹ Although they promise them freedom, they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by that which a man is overcome, to this he is enslaved. ²⁰ For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. ²¹ For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then turn back from the holy commandment that was delivered to them. ²² But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog returns to his own vomit,”^[a] and “the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mud.”