The Daily Audio Bible

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.

Hearing and Doing the Word

¹⁹ Therefore, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, ²⁰ for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. ²¹ Therefore lay aside all filthiness and remaining wickedness and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

²² Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man viewing his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴ He views himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. ²⁵ But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in his deeds.

²⁶ If anyone among you seems to be religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. ²⁷ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Warning Against Partiality

2 My brothers, have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, without partiality. ² For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your assembly, and also a poor man in ragged clothing comes in, ³ and you have respect for him who wears the fine clothing and say to him, “Sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor, “Stand there,” or “Sit here under my footstool,” ⁴ have you not then become partial among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers. Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him? ⁶ But you have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you and drag you before the judgment seats? ⁷ Do they not blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called?

⁸ If you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”^[a] you are doing well. ⁹ But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as sinners. ¹⁰ For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point is guilty of breaking the whole law. ¹¹ For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,”^[b] also said, “Do not kill.”^[c] Now if you do not commit adultery, yet you kill, you have become a lawbreaker.

¹² So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³ For he who has shown no mercy will have judgment without mercy, for mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith and Works

¹⁴ What does it profit, my brothers, if a man says he has faith but has no works? Can faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and lacking daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” and yet you give them nothing that the body needs, what does it profit? ¹⁷ So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Psalm 117