The Daily Audio Bible

The valley of dry bones^[a]

37 The Lord took hold of me with great power. In a vision, the Lord's Spirit took me to the middle of a valley. Bones covered all the ground there. ² The Lord made me walk up and down among the bones. I could see many bones there, on the ground in the valley. They were completely dry.

³ He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones become alive again?’

I said, ‘Almighty Lord, only you know the answer.’

⁴ Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones. Say to them, “Dry bones, listen to the Lord's message! ⁵ This is what the Almighty Lord says to you bones: Listen! I will put breath into you and you will become alive. ⁶ I will join you together and I will put meat on you. I will cover you with skin. I will put breath into you and you will become alive. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” ’^[b]

⁷ So I prophesied, as the Lord had commanded me to do. While I was still speaking, there was a noise. It was the sound of the bones as they knocked against each other when they joined together. ⁸ While I watched, I saw meat come and join to the bones. Then skin covered them. But there was no breath in them yet.

⁹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Prophesy to the wind, son of man. Speak my message to the wind. Say, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: Blow from all directions and put breath into these dead bodies! Cause them to become alive again.” ’

¹⁰ So I spoke the message that the Lord had commanded me to speak. Breath went into those dead bodies and they became alive. They stood up on their feet. They were as many as a great army.

¹¹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are a picture of all Israel's people. The Israelites are saying, “Our bones are dead and dry. There are no good things that we can hope for. We have come to an end.” ¹² So prophesy and say to them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: Listen, my people! I will soon open up your graves. I will bring you out of your graves. I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ When that happens to you, my people, you will know that I am the Lord. ¹⁴ I will put the breath of my Spirit in you, and you will become alive. I will let you live safely in your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken. You will know that I have done what I said I would do. That is what the Lordsays.” ’^[c]

¹⁵ The Lord gave this message to me: ¹⁶ ‘Son of man, take a stick and write on it, “This stick belongs to Judah and the Israelite tribes that are with him.” Then take another stick and write on it, “This stick belongs to Joseph's son Ephraim and the Israelite tribes that are with him.”^{[d] 17} Make the two sticks join together to become one stick in your hand. ¹⁸ Your people will ask you, “Please tell us what this means.” ¹⁹ When they ask that, say to them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: I will take Joseph's stick that belongs to Ephraim and the Israelite tribes that are with him. I will cause it to join together with Judah's stick. I will make them become one stick in my hand.”

²⁰ Hold the two sticks that you have written words on. Hold them in your hand for the people to see. ²¹ Say to the people, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: I will take Israel's people out from among the nations where they have gone. I will bring them back together from all those foreign countries. I will bring them to their own land. ²² In that land, I will make them become one nation. They will live on Israel's mountains. They will have one king to rule over them all. They will never again become two nations or two separate kingdoms. ²³ They will no longer worship their disgusting idols and make themselves unclean. They will not refuse to obey me. They have turned away from me and done bad things. But I will save them from all their sins. I will make them clean. They will be my people and I will be their God.

²⁴ My servant David will be their king. There will be one shepherd who takes care of them all. They will carefully obey my rules and my laws. ²⁵ They will live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob. It is the land where your ancestors lived. My people, their children and their grandchildren will live there. They will live there for ever. My servant David will rule over them for ever.^[e]

²⁶ I will make a covenant with them to give them peace. It is a promise to my people that will continue for ever. I will cause them to live safely in their land. I will cause them to grow in number. I will put my temple among them, to be with them for ever. ²⁷ I will make my home with them. I will be their God and they will be my people. ²⁸ Then the nations will know that I, the Lord, have chosen the Israelites as my own people. The nations will see that I have put my temple among my people for ever.” ’

38 The Lord gave this message to me: ² ‘Son of man, turn and look towards Gog, in the land of Magog. He is the most important prince of Meshech and Tubal. Speak my message to warn him. ³ Say, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: I am your enemy, Gog, prince of Meshech and Tubal. ⁴ I will turn you around. I will put hooks into your mouth and catch you. I will take hold of you and your great army, with its horses and their riders. I will take hold of all your soldiers, who are ready to fight with their swords and their shields. I will pull them all away. ⁵ Soldiers from Persia, Ethiopia and Libya will be there with your army. They all have shields and helmets. ⁶ All the soldiers from Gomer will join you. An army from Beth Togarmah will also come with all its soldiers from far away in the north. So armies from many nations will be with you.”

⁷ Say to Gog, “Prepare to fight! You must be ready to command all the armies that are with you. ⁸ After many days you will have to bring your soldiers together to fight a battle. In the years at the end of time, you will go to attack the land of Israel. It will be a land that has become strong again after war. The people there will have returned from other nations. They will all be living safely in that land that had become heaps of stones. They will all be together on Israel's mountains. ⁹ Then you will attack them. You, with your armies and all the people with you, will attack them like a great storm. You will be like a dark cloud that covers the land.

¹⁰ This is what the Almighty Lord says: On that day you will have evil thoughts. You will decide to do a wicked thing. ¹¹ You will say: ‘We will attack a land where the villages have no walls around them. The people are living quietly in peace and we will attack them. They have no walls or strong gates to keep them safe. ¹² We will fight them and take their things for ourselves. The people there have come back from other nations where they lived. They are living in their homes which had become heaps of stones. Now they have got many animals and valuable things. Their land has become an important place in the middle of everywhere.’

¹³ The people of Sheba and Dedan, and the traders and leaders of Tarshish will ask you questions. They will say, ‘Why have you brought all your armies together? Have you come to attack Israel and take away their valuable things for yourselves? Will you take away their silver and their gold? Will you take their animals and all their things? Will you carry away such a great load of things for yourselves? ’ ”

¹⁴ So, son of man, you must prophesy to Gog. Say to him, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: That is what you will decide to do at that time. You will do it when you see that my people, the Israelites, are living safely. ¹⁵ You will come from your country far away in the north. You will bring many soldiers with you. All of them will be riding on horses. They will be a great army of many soldiers. ¹⁶ Your army will be like a cloud that covers the land when you attack my people, the Israelites. In the days at the end of time I will bring you to attack my land. Yes, Gog, I will use you to show the nations that I am holy. Then they will know who I am.

¹⁷ This is what the Almighty Lord says: In years long ago, I gave my servants, the prophets of Israel, messages about you. At that time they prophesied that I would bring you to attack my people. ¹⁸ I, the Almighty Lord, say this: On the day that Gog attacks the land of Israel, I will become more and more angry. ¹⁹ I promise you this, because I am so very angry. On that day, there will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. ²⁰ Everything that lives will shake with fear when they see what I am doing. The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the wild animals, the small animals that move along the ground and all the people on earth will be very afraid. I will make the mountains and hills break into pieces. All the walls in the cities will fall down.

²¹ I will command the soldiers on all the mountains of my land to attack Gog. That is what I, the Almighty Lord, say. Gog's soldiers will fight against each other with their swords. ²² I will judge Gog. I will punish his men with disease and death. I will send storms of rain, hail, fire and sulphur. They will pour down from the sky on him and on his armies. ²³ I will show all the nations that I am great and I am holy. Then they will know that I am the Lord.” ’

Listen and do what God wants

¹⁹ Understand this, my Christian friends: We must all be careful to listen. We should not be too quick to speak. We should not get angry quickly. ²⁰ God wants us to do what is right. But when someone is angry, they do not do those right things. ²¹ So stop doing disgusting things. Stay away from the wicked things that are all around you. God has put his message deep inside you, and it can save you. So be careful to accept that message.

²² But be careful to do what God says in his message. Do not only listen to it. Do not make that mistake! ²³ You must obey God's message. Do not be like a man who quickly looks at his face in a mirror. ²⁴ That man looks at himself, but then he goes away. He immediately forgets what he is really like. ²⁵ So do not just listen to God's message and then forget it. It is a completely good message that makes people free. Look at it carefully and keep it in your mind. Do what it tells you to do. God will bless anyone who lives in that way.

²⁶ Maybe some of you think that you are serving God well. But if you also say bad things about people, you do not serve God well at all. You are doing something bad even when you think you are doing good things. ²⁷ If you want to serve God in a completely good way, do things like this: Help children who have no parents and women who are widows. Help them in their troubles. If you serve God our Father like that, he will be pleased with you. Do not let the bad people in this world make you bad too.

Every person has equal value

2 My Christian friends, you must be kind to everyone. You trust the Lord Jesus Christ, who is great in heaven. So do not think that anyone is more valuable than any other person.

² When you are meeting together as believers, maybe two men will come to join with you. One of them is wearing beautiful clothes, and he has gold rings on his hands. The other man is poor, and he is wearing old clothes that are dirty. ³ You are kind to the man who is wearing beautiful clothes. You say to him, ‘Please sit here in this good place.’ But you say to the poor man, ‘Go and stand over there.’ Or you may say to him, ‘Sit on the floor near my feet.’ ⁴ If you do that, you are thinking bad thoughts. You have decided that one person among you is better than another person. You must not do that.

⁵ My Christian friends, listen to me. God has chosen to bless people who are poor in this world. He has helped them to trust him. So really they are rich. God will give to them a place in his kingdom. He has promised to do that for all people who love him. ⁶ But you have not been kind to people who are poor. You have caused them to feel ashamed. Who causes you to have troubles? It is the rich people! They are the people who want the judges to punish you. ⁷ It is the rich people who say bad things against the good name of Jesus Christ. And you are called Christians because you belong to him.

⁸ But the message of God's kingdom is this: ‘Love other people as much as you love yourself.’ That is what the Bible says. If you really do that, you do well. ⁹ But if you are kind to some people and you are not kind to others, then you are doing a bad thing. God's Law shows that you are wrong. ¹⁰ Even if you fail to obey only one rule in God's Law, it means that you are guilty. It is the same as if you fail to obey all God's Law. ¹¹ For example, God has said in his Law, ‘You must not have sex with anyone who is not your husband or your wife.’ But God has also said, ‘Do not kill another person.’ Perhaps you do not have sex in a wrong way like that. But if you then murder someone, God's Law shows that you are still wrong.

¹² Remember that God will judge you one day. When he does that, he will use a law which makes us free. So remember this in everything that you say and in everything that you do. ¹³ God will not forgive anyone who has not forgiven other people. But God is kind! He judges us, but even more than that, he forgives us!

Believe God and do good things

¹⁴ My Christian brothers, you say that you believe in God. Then you must show this in the things that you do. If not, your faith will not help you. It will not save you. ¹⁵ For example, maybe a believer does not have enough clothes to wear or enough food to eat. ¹⁶ Then one of you may say to them, ‘Go with God's peace! I pray that you will be warm. I pray that you will eat well.’ But if you do not give to them what they need, that does not help them at all. ¹⁷ How we believe in God is also like that. If our faith does not lead us to do good things, then it is not worth anything. It is dead!

Praise the Lord!^[a]