¹“At that time the bones of the kings and of the officials of Judah, as well as the bones of the priests, of the prophets, and of the other people who lived in Jerusalem, will be taken out of their graves.

²Instead of being gathered and buried, their bones will be like manure lying on the ground. They will be spread out before the sun, the moon, and the stars, which these people have loved and served, and which they have consulted and worshiped.

³And the people of this evil nation who survive, who live in the places where I have scattered them, will prefer to die rather than to go on living. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken.”

Sin and Punishment

⁴The Lord told me to say to his people, “When someone falls down, doesn't he get back up? If someone misses the road, doesn't he turn back?

⁵Why then, my people, do you turn away from me without ever turning back? You cling to your idols and refuse to return to me.

⁶I listened carefully, but you did not speak the truth. Not one of you has been sorry for your wickedness; not one of you has asked, ‘What have I done wrong?’ Each of you keep on going your own way, like a horse rushing into battle.

⁷Even storks know when it is time to return; doves, swallows, and thrushes know when it is time to migrate. But, my people, you do not know the laws by which I rule you.

⁸How can you say that you are wise and that you know my laws? Look, the laws have been changed by dishonest scribes.

⁹Your wise men are put to shame; they are confused and trapped. They have rejected my words; what wisdom do they have now?

¹⁰So I will give their fields to new owners and their wives to other men. Everyone, great and small, tries to make money dishonestly. Even prophets and priests cheat the people.

¹¹They act as if my people's wounds were only scratches. ‘All is well,’ they say, when all is not well.

¹²My people, were you ashamed because you did these disgusting things? No, you were not ashamed at all; you don't even know how to blush! And so you will fall as others have fallen; when I punish you, that will be the end of you. I, the Lord, have spoken.

¹³“I wanted to gather my people, as a farmer gathers a harvest; but they are like a vine with no grapes, like a fig tree with no figs; even the leaves have withered. Therefore, I have allowed outsiders to take over the land.”

¹⁴“Why are we sitting still?” God's people ask. “Come on, we will run to the fortified cities and die there. The Lord our God has condemned us to die; he has given us poison to drink, because we have sinned against him.

¹⁵We hoped for peace and a time of healing, but it was no use; terror came instead.

¹⁶Our enemies are already in the city of Dan; we hear the snorting of their horses. The whole land trembles when their horses neigh. Our enemies have come to destroy our land and everything in it, our city and all its people.”

¹⁷“Watch out!” the Lord says, “I am sending snakes among you, poisonous snakes that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you.”

Jeremiah's Sorrow for His People

¹⁸My sorrow cannot be healed; I am sick at heart.

¹⁹Listen! Throughout the land I hear my people crying out, “Is the Lord no longer in Zion? Is Zion's king no longer there?” The Lord, their king, replies, “Why have you made me angry by worshiping your idols and by bowing down to your useless foreign gods?”

²⁰The people cry out, “The summer is gone, the harvest is over, but we have not been saved.”

²¹My heart has been crushed because my people are crushed; I mourn; I am completely dismayed.

²²Is there no medicine in Gilead? Are there no doctors there? Why, then, have my people not been healed?

The Valley of Dry Bones

¹I felt the powerful presence of the Lord, and his spirit took me and set me down in a valley where the ground was covered with bones.

²He led me all around the valley, and I could see that there were very many bones and that they were very dry.

³He said to me, “Mortal man, can these bones come back to life?” I replied, “Sovereign Lord, only you can answer that!”

⁴He said, “Prophesy to the bones. Tell these dry bones to listen to the word of the Lord.

⁵Tell them that I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying to them: I am going to put breath into you and bring you back to life.

⁶I will give you sinews and muscles, and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you and bring you back to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”

⁷So I prophesied as I had been told. While I was speaking, I heard a rattling noise, and the bones began to join together.

⁸While I watched, the bones were covered with sinews and muscles, and then with skin. But there was no breath in the bodies.

⁹God said to me, “Mortal man, prophesy to the wind. Tell the wind that the Sovereign Lord commands it to come from every direction, to breathe into these dead bodies, and to bring them back to life.”

¹⁰So I prophesied as I had been told. Breath entered the bodies, and they came to life and stood up. There were enough of them to form an army.

¹¹God said to me, “Mortal man, the people of Israel are like these bones. They say that they are dried up, without any hope and with no future.

¹²So prophesy to my people Israel and tell them that I, the Sovereign Lord, am going to open their graves. I am going to take them out and bring them back to the land of Israel.

¹³When I open the graves where my people are buried and bring them out, they will know that I am the Lord.

¹⁴I will put my breath in them, bring them back to life, and let them live in their own land. Then they will know that I am the Lord. I have promised that I would do this—and I will. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Judah and Israel in One Kingdom

¹⁵The Lord spoke to me again.

¹⁶“Mortal man,” he said, “take a wooden stick and write on it the words, ‘The kingdom of Judah.’ Then take another stick and write on it the words, ‘The kingdom of Israel.’

¹⁷Then hold the two sticks end to end in your hand so that they look like one stick.

¹⁸When your people ask you to tell them what this means,

¹⁹tell them that I, the Sovereign Lord, am going to take the stick representing Israel and put it with the one that represents Judah. Out of the two I will make one stick and hold it in my hand.

²⁰“Hold in your hand the two sticks and let the people see them.

²¹Then tell them that I, the Sovereign Lord, am going to take all my people out of the nations where they have gone, gather them together, and bring them back to their own land.

²²I will unite them into one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. They will have one king to rule over them, and they will no longer be divided into two nations or split into two kingdoms.

²³They will not defile themselves with disgusting idols any more or corrupt themselves with sin. I will free them from all the ways in which they sin and betray me. I will purify them; they will be my people, and I will be their God.

²⁴A king like my servant David will be their king. They will all be united under one ruler and will obey my laws faithfully.

²⁵They will live on the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where their ancestors lived. They will live there forever, and so will their children and all their descendants. A king like my servant David will rule them forever.

²⁶I will make a covenant with them that guarantees their security forever. I will establish them and increase their population, and will see to it that my Temple stands forever in their land.

²⁷I will live there with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.

²⁸When I place my Temple there to be among them forever, then the nations will know that I, the Lord, have chosen Israel to be my own people.”

Gog as the Instrument of God

¹The Lord spoke to me.

²“Mortal man,” he said, “denounce Gog, chief ruler of the nations of Meshech and Tubal in the land of Magog. Denounce him

³and tell him that I, the Sovereign Lord, am his enemy.

⁴I will turn him around, put hooks in his jaws, and drag him and all his troops away. His army, with its horses and uniformed riders, is enormous, and every soldier carries a shield and is armed with a sword.

⁵Troops from Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with him, and all have shields and helmets.

⁶All the fighting men of the lands of Gomer and Beth Togarmah in the north are with him, and so are men from many other nations.

⁷Tell him to get ready and have all his troops ready at his command.

⁸After many years I will order him to invade a country where the people were brought back together from many nations and have lived without fear of war. He will invade the mountains of Israel, which were desolate and deserted so long, but where all the people now live in safety.

⁹He and his army and the many nations with him will attack like a storm and cover the land like a cloud.”

¹⁰This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Gog: “When that time comes, you will start thinking up an evil plan.

¹¹You will decide to invade a helpless country where the people live in peace and security in unwalled towns that have no defenses.

¹²You will plunder and loot the people who live in cities that were once in ruins. They have been gathered from the nations, and now they have livestock and property and live at the crossroads of the world.

¹³The people of Sheba and Dedan and the merchants from the towns of Spain will ask you, ‘Have you assembled your army and attacked in order to loot and plunder? Do you intend to get silver and gold, livestock and property, and march off with all those spoils?’”

¹⁴So the Sovereign Lord sent me to tell Gog what he was saying to him: “Now while my people Israel live in security, you will set out

¹⁵to come from your place in the far north, leading a large, powerful army of soldiers from many nations, all of them on horseback.

¹⁶You will attack my people Israel like a storm moving across the land. When the time comes, I will send you to invade my land in order to show the nations who I am, to show my holiness by what I do through you.

¹⁷You are the one I was talking about long ago, when I announced through my servants, the prophets of Israel, that in days to come I would bring someone to attack Israel.” The Sovereign Lord has spoken.

God's Punishment of Gog

¹⁸The Sovereign Lord says, “On the day when Gog invades Israel, I will become furious.

¹⁹I declare in the heat of my anger that on that day there will be a severe earthquake in the land of Israel.

²⁰Every fish and bird, every animal large and small, and every human being on the face of the earth will tremble for fear of me. Mountains will fall, cliffs will crumble, and every wall will collapse.

²¹I will terrify Gog with all sorts of calamities. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. His men will turn their swords against one another.

²²I will punish him with disease and bloodshed. Torrents of rain and hail, together with fire and sulfur, will pour down on him and his army and on the many nations that are on his side.

²³In this way I will show all the nations that I am great and that I am holy. They will know then that I am the Lord.”

³³Wisdom is in every thought of intelligent people; fools know nothing about wisdom.

³⁴Righteousness makes a nation great; sin is a disgrace to any nation.

³⁵Kings are pleased with competent officials, but they punish those who fail them.