Ezekiel

37 Jehovah’s hand came upon me, and he brought me out by Jehovah’s spirit and set me down in the middle of the bottom-lands, and they were full of bones. 2 And he took me past them round and round, and I found that there were very many lying out in the bottom-lands and that they were very dry. 3 And he said to me “Man, will these bones come to life?” and I said “Lord Jehovah, you know.” 4 And he said to me “Prophesy over these bones and say to them ‘Dry bones, hear Jehovah’s word! 5 Says the Lord Jehovah to these bones, Here I am going to have breath come into you, and you shall come to life; 6 and I will put ligaments on you and have flesh grow up over you and will coat you with skin, and you shall come to life, and you shall know that I am Jehovah.’”

7 And I prophesied as I was commissioned to; and as I was prophesying there came a sound, and it was a shaking, and bones were coming together, each to the bone that matched it. 8 And as I looked on, there they had ligaments on them, and flesh grew up, and they came to be coated over with skin; but there was no breath in them. 9 And he said to me “Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, man, and say to the wind ‘Says the Lord Jehovah, Come, wind, from the four winds, and blow into these slain men that they may come to life!’” 10 And I prophesied as he commissioned me to, and the breath came into them and they came to life and stood on their feet, a very great brigade indeed.

11 And he said to me “Man, these bones are all the house of Israel; here they are saying ‘Our bones are dried up; our hope is lost, it is all over with us.’ 12 So prophesy and say to them ‘Says the Lord Jehovah, Here I am opening your graves and bringing you up out of your graves, my people, and bringing you to the soil of Israel; 13 and you shall know that I am Jehovah at my opening your graves and bringing you up out of your graves, my people. 14 And I will put my breath in you and you shall come to life, and I will set you down on your own soil and you shall know that it was I Jehovah who spoke and acted, quoth the Lord Jehovah.’”

15 And Jehovah’s word came to me 16* “And as for you, man, take yourself one piece of wood and write on it ‘Judah and the sons of Israel associated with him,’ and take another piece of wood and write on it ‘Joseph, Ephraim’s piece, and all the house of Israel associated with him,’ 17 and bring them in contact as one piece and have them become one in your hand. 18* And when the sons of your people say to you ‘Will you not tell us what you mean by these things?’ 19* give them the word ‘Says the Lord Jehovah, Here I am going to take Joseph’s piece that Ephraim has in his hand, and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and put Judah’s piece to it and make them one piece, and they shall become one in my hand’; 20 and the pieces you write on shall be in your hand before their eyes. 21 And tell them ‘Says the Lord Jehovah, Here I am going to take the sons of Israel out from among the nations where they have gone, and to gather them from every quarter and bring them in to their own soil; 22* and I will make them one nation in my country and on Israel’s highlands, and they shall all have one king for king, and they shall not again become two nations nor be divided into two kingdoms; 23* and they shall not again be defiled with their fetishes and their disgustments and all their crimes, but I will save them out of all their apostasies in which they have sinned, and I will cleanse them and have them for my people, and they shall have me for their God, 24 and my servant David shall be king over them and they shall all have one shepherd; and they shall go by my laws and observe my usages and live up to them. And they shall live in the country I gave to my servant Jacob, that their fathers lived in; 25 and they and their children and their children’s children shall live in it forever, with my servant David for eternal prince over them. 26* And I will pledge them a covenant of peace; it shall be a perpetual covenant with them; and I will make them numerous; and I will put my sanctuary in their midst forever, 27 and my tabernacle shall be over them; and they shall have me for their God, and I will have them for my people. 28 And the nations shall know that I Jehovah am consecrating Israel when my sanctuary comes to be in their midst forever.’”