Ezekiel 37 - 38, Hebrews 4, Proverbs 9

Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones

37The ^ahand of Yahweh was upon me, and He ^bbrought me out ¹by the Spirit of Yahweh and caused me to rest in the middle of the ^cvalley; and it was full of bones. ²He caused me to pass among them all around, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and behold, they were very dry. ³He said to me, “Son of man, ^acan these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord Yahweh, ^bYou know.” ⁴Then He said to me, “^aProphesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, ^bhear the word of Yahweh.’ ⁵“Thus says Lord Yahweh to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause ¹^,^abreath to enter you that you may come to life. ⁶‘I will put sinews on you, make flesh come up upon you, cover you with skin, and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will ^aknow that I am Yahweh.’”

⁷So I prophesied ^aas I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a ¹noise, and behold, a rumbling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh came up upon them, and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. ⁹Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Come from the four ¹winds, O breath, and ^abreathe on these who were killed, that they may ^bcome to life.”’” ¹⁰So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the ^abreath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an ^bexceedingly great military force.

¹¹Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the ^awhole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our ^bbones are dried up, and our hope has perished. We are ¹completely ^ccut off.’ ¹²“Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I will open your graves and ^acause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³“Then you will know that I am Yahweh, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. ¹⁴“And I will ^aput My ¹Spirit within you, and you will come to life, and I will ²place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken and done it,” declares Yahweh.’”

Israel Will No Longer Be Divided

¹⁵The word of Yahweh came again to me saying, ¹⁶“Now as for you, son of man, take for yourself ^aone stick and write on it, ‘For ^bJudah and for the sons of Israel, his companions’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For ^cJoseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.’ ¹⁷“Then ^adraw them together for yourself one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand. ¹⁸“And when the sons of your people speak to you saying, ‘Will you not declare to us ^awhat you mean by these?’ ¹⁹say to them, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.”’ ²⁰“And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes. ²¹“And speak to them, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I will ^atake the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; ²²and I will make them ^aone nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and ^bone king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms. ²³“They also will ^ano longer defile themselves with their idols or with their detestable things or with any of their transgressions; but ^bI will save them from all their ¹places of habitation in which they have sinned, and I will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God.

Yahweh Cuts a Covenant

²⁴“And My servant ^aDavid will be king over them, and they will all have ^bone shepherd; and they will walk in My judgments and keep My statutes and do them. ²⁵“They will inhabit the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, which your fathers inhabited; and they will inhabit it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and ^aDavid My servant will be their prince forever. ²⁶“And I will cut a ^acovenant of peace with them; it will be an ^beverlasting covenant with them. And I will give them the land and ^cmultiply them and will set My ^dsanctuary in their midst forever. ²⁷“My ¹^,^adwelling place also will be with them; and ^bI will be their God, and they will be My people. ²⁸“And the nations will know that I am Yahweh ^awho sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.”’”

Prophecy Against Gog

38And the word of Yahweh came to me saying, ²“Son of man, set your face toward ^aGog of the land of ^bMagog, the ¹^,^cchief prince of ^dMeshech and ^eTubal, and prophesy against him ³and say, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, ¹chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. ⁴“I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will ^abring you out, and all your military force, ^bhorses and horsemen, all of them ¹magnificently dressed, a great assembly with large shield and shield, all of them ²wielding swords; ⁵^aPersia, ¹^,^bEthiopia, and ^cPut with them, all of them with shield and helmet; ⁶^aGomer with all its troops; ^bBeth-togarmah from the remote parts of the north with all its troops—many peoples with you.

⁷“^aBe prepared, and prepare yourself, you and all your assembly that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them. ⁸“^aAfter many days you will be mustered; in the last years you will come into the land that is ¹restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been ^bgathered from many peoples to the ^cmountains of Israel which had been a continual waste; but ²its people were brought out from the peoples, and they are ^dliving securely, all of them. ⁹“And you will go up; you will come ^alike a storm; you will be like a ^bcloud covering the land, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”

¹⁰‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “It will be in that day, that ¹thoughts will come into your heart, and you will ^adevise an evil plan, ¹¹and you will say, ‘I will go up against the land of ¹^,^aunwalled villages. I will go against those who ^bdwell quietly, that live securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates, ¹²to ^acapture spoil and to seize plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places, which are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and property, who live at the ¹center of the world.’ ¹³“^aSheba and ^bDedan and the merchants of ^cTarshish with all its ¹young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to capture spoil? Have you assembled your assembly to seize plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to capture great ^dspoil?’”’

¹⁴“Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “On that day when My people Israel are ^aliving securely, will you not know it? ¹⁵“^aYou will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north, you and numerous peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great assembly and a numerous military force; ¹⁶and you will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. It will be in the last days that I will bring you against My land so that the nations may ^aknow Me when I ^bprove Myself holy through you before their eyes, O Gog.”

¹⁷‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days by the hand of My slaves the prophets of Israel, who ^aprophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them? ¹⁸“And it will be in that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” declares Lord Yahweh, “that My wrath will mount up in My ^aanger. ¹⁹“In My ^azeal and in My blazing fury I have spoken that on that day there will surely be a great ¹^,^bearthquake in the land of Israel. ²⁰“^aAnd the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the men who are on the face of the earth will quake at My presence; the ^bmountains also will be pulled down, the steep pathways will fall, and every wall will fall to the earth. ²¹“And I will call for a ^asword against ¹him on all My mountains,” declares Lord Yahweh. “^bEvery man’s sword will be against his brother. ²²“With pestilence and with blood I will enter into ^ajudgment with him; and I will rain on him and on his troops, and on the numerous peoples who are with him, ¹a torrential rain, with ^bhailstones, fire, and brimstone. ²³“And I will magnify Myself, I will manifest Myself as holy, and I will ^amake Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am Yahweh.”’

The Believer’s Rest

4Therefore, let us fear, lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have ^afallen short of it. ²For indeed we have had good news proclaimed to us, just as they also; but ^athe word ¹that was heard did not profit those ²who were not united with faith among those who heard. ³For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “^aAs I swore in My wrath,They shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished ^bfrom the foundation of the world.⁴For He has spoken ^asomewhere in this way concerning the seventh day: “^bAnd God ^crested on the seventh day from all His works”; ⁵and again in this passage, “^aThey shall not enter My rest.” ⁶Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news proclaimed to them failed to enter because of ^adisobedience, ⁷He again determines a certain day, “Today,” saying ¹through David after so long a time just ^aas has been said before, “^bToday if you hear His voice,Do not harden your hearts.”

⁸For ^aif ¹Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. ⁹So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. ¹⁰For the one who has entered His rest has himself also ^arested from his works, as ^bGod did from His. ¹¹Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall into the same ^aexample of ^bdisobedience. ¹²For ^athe word of God is ^bliving and ^cactive and sharper than any two-edged ^dsword, and piercing as far as the division of ^esoul and ^fspirit, of both joints and marrow, and ^gable to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³And ^athere is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are ¹^,^buncovered and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we have an account to give.

Jesus Our Great High Priest

¹⁴Therefore, since we have a great ^ahigh priest who has ^bpassed through the heavens, Jesus ^cthe Son of God, let us take hold of our ^dconfession. ¹⁵For we do not have ^aa high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been ^btempted in all things like we are, yet ^cwithout sin. ¹⁶Therefore let us ^adraw near with ^bconfidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Wisdom and Foolishness Call Out

9Wisdom has ^abuilt her house,She has hewn out her seven pillars;²She has ¹^,^aslaughtered her cattle, she has ^bmixed her wine;She has also ^cprepared her table;³She has ^asent out her maidens, she ^bcallsFrom the ^ctops of the heights of the city:⁴“^aWhoever is simple, let him turn in here!”To him who ^blacks a heart of wisdom she says,⁵“Come, ^aeat of my breadAnd drink of the wine I have mixed.⁶“¹Forsake your simplicity and ^alive,And ^bstep into the way of understanding.”⁷He who ^adisciplines a scoffer receives disgrace for himself,And he who reproves a wicked man receives injury for himself.⁸^aDo not reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you,^bReprove a wise man and he will love you.⁹Give knowledge to a wise man and he will be still wiser,Make a righteous man know it and he will ^aincrease his learning.¹⁰The ^afear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom,And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.¹¹For ^aby me your days will become many,And years of life will be added to you.¹²If you are wise, you are wise ^afor yourself,And if you ^bscoff, you alone will bear it.¹³The woman of ¹foolishness is ^aboisterous,A woman of simplicity, and ^bdoes not know anything.¹⁴She sits at the doorway of her house,On a seat by ^athe high places of the city,¹⁵To call to those who pass by that way,Who are making their paths straight:¹⁶“^aWhoever is simple, let him turn in here,”And to him who lacks a heart of wisdom she says,¹⁷“Stolen water is sweet;And ^abread eaten in secret is pleasant.”¹⁸But he does not know that the ¹dead are there,That those she called are in the ^adepths of Sheol.