| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New International Version |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2He 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. |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "Sovereign LORD, you alone know." |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6I 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.'" |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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. |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'" |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet--a vast army. |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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.' |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12Therefore 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. |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.'" |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15The word of the LORD came to me: |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16"Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, 'Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him.' Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, 'Belonging to Joseph (that is, to Ephraim) and all the Israelites associated with him.' |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18"When your people ask you, 'Won't you tell us what you mean by this?' |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19say 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.' |
| 20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on |
| 21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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. |
| 22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms. |
| 23[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 23They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God. |
| 24[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 24"'My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees. |
| 25[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 25They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived. They and their children and their children's children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever. |
| 26[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 26I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. |
| 27[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 27My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. |
| 28[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 28Then the nations will know that I the LORD make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.'" |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. |
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