Ezekiel 37

¹ The hand of Yahweh was laid on me, and he carried me away by the spirit of Yahweh and set me down in the middle of a valley, a valley full of bones.

² He made me walk up and down among them. There were vast quantities of these bones on the ground the whole length of the valley; and they were quite dried up.

³ He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘You know, Lord Yahweh’.

⁴ He said, ‘Prophesy over these bones. Say, “Dry bones, hear the word of Yahweh.

⁵ The Lord Yahweh says this to these bones: I am now going to make the breath[*a] enter you, and you will live.

⁶ I shall put sinews on you, I shall make flesh grow on you, I shall cover you with skin and give you breath, and you will live; and you will learn that I am Yahweh.”‘

⁷ I prophesied as I had been ordered. While I was prophesying, there was a noise, a sound of clattering; and the bones joined together.

⁸ I looked, and saw that they were covered with sinews; flesh was growing on them and skin was covering them, but there was no breath in them.

⁹ He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, “The Lord Yahweh says this: Come from the four winds, breath; breathe on these dead; let them live!”‘

¹⁰ I prophesied as he had ordered me, and the breath entered them; they came to life again and stood up on their feet, a great, an immense army.

¹¹ Then he said, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They keep saying, “Our bones are dried up, our hope has gone; we are as good as dead”.

¹² So prophesy. Say to them, “The Lord Yahweh says this: I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel.

¹³ And you will know that I am Yahweh, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people.

¹⁴ And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil; and you will know that I, Yahweh, have said and done this – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks.”

¹⁵ The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,

¹⁶ ‘Son of man, take a stick and write on it, “Judah and those Israelites loyal to him”. Take another stick and write on it, “Joseph, the wood of Ephraim, and all the House of Israel loyal to him”.

¹⁷ ‘Join one to the other to make a single piece of wood, a single stick in your hand.

¹⁸ And when the members of your nation say, “Tell us what you mean”,

¹⁹ say, “The Lord Yahweh says this: I am taking the stick of Joseph, now in the hand of Ephraim, and those tribes of Israel loyal to him, and I am going to put the stick of Judah with them. I shall make one stick out of the two, and I shall hold them as one.”

²⁰ ‘Keep the pieces of wood you have written on in your hand where they can see,

²¹ and say, “The Lord Yahweh says this: I am going to take the sons of Israel from the nations where they have gone. I shall gather them together from everywhere and bring them home to their own soil.

²² I shall make them into one nation in my own land and on the mountains of Israel, and one king is to be king of them all; they will no longer form two nations, nor be two separate kingdoms.

²³ They will any longer defile themselves with their idols and their filthy practices and all their sins. I shall rescue them from all the betrayals they have been guilty of; I shall cleanse them; they shall be my people and I will be their God.

²⁴ My servant David will reign over them, one shepherd for all; they will follow my observances, respect my laws and practise them.

²⁵ They will live in the land that I gave my servant Jacob, the land in which your ancestors lived. They will live in it, they, their children, their children’s children, for ever. David my servant is to be their prince for ever.

²⁶ I shall make a covenant of peace with them, an eternal covenant with them. I shall resettle them and increase them; I shall settle my sanctuary among them for ever.

²⁷ I shall make my home above them; I will be their God, they shall be my people.

²⁸ And the nations will learn that I am Yahweh the sanctifier of Israel, when my sanctuary is with them for ever.”‘