Bible Reading Plan
September 15
Ezekiel 37-39
Chapter 37
Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones
1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit
of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of
bones.
2 He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many
on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry.
3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O
Lord God, You know.”
4 Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O
dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’
5 “Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath
to enter you that you may come to life.
6 ‘I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with
skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that
I am the Lord.’ ”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise,
and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone.
8 And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered
them; but there was no breath in them.
9 Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and
say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds,
O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.” ’ ”
10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they
came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
The Vision Explained
11 Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of
Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished.
We are completely cut off.’
12 “Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold,
I will open your graves and cause 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 the Lord, when I have opened your graves
and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people.
14 “I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and
I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have
spoken and done it,” declares the Lord.’ ”
Reunion of Judah and Israel
15 The word of the Lord came again to me saying,
16 “And you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write on it, ‘For
Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions’; then take another
stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the
house of Israel, his companions.’
17 “Then join them for yourself one to another into one stick, that they
may become one in your hand.
18 “When the sons of your people speak to you saying, ‘Will you not
declare to us what you mean by these?’
19 say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “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 “The sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.
21 “Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will take
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;
22 and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel;
and one 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 will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their
detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver
them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse
them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God.
The Davidic Kingdom
24 “My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one
shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe
them.
25 “They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which
your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their
sons’ sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever.
26 “I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting
covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set
My sanctuary in their midst forever.
27 “My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God,
and they will be My people.
28 “And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel,
when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.” ’ ”
Chapter 38
Prophecy about Gog and Future Invasion of Israel
1 And the word of the Lord came to me saying,
2 “Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince
of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him
3 and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am against you,
O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal.
4 “I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring
you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them splendidly attired,
a great company with buckler and shield, all of them wielding swords;
5 Persia, Ethiopia and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet;
6 Gomer with all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remote parts of the
north with all its troops—many peoples with you.
7 “Be prepared, and prepare yourself, you and all your companies that
are assembled about you, and be a guard for them.
8 “After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will
come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been
gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a
continual waste; but its people were brought out from the nations, and they
are living securely, all of them.
9 “You will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a cloud
covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you.”
10 ‘Thus says the Lord God, “It will come about on that day, that
thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil plan,
11 and you will say, ‘I will go up against the land of unwalled villages.
I will go against those who are at rest, that live securely, all of them living
without walls and having no bars or gates,
12 to capture 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 goods, who live at the center of
the world.’
13 “Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its villages
will say to you, ‘Have you come to capture spoil? Have you assembled your
company to seize plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle
and goods, to capture great spoil?’ ” ’
14 “Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, ‘Thus says the
Lord God, “On that day when My people Israel are living securely, will
you not know it?
15 “You will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north,
you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great assembly
and a mighty army;
16 and you will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the
land. It shall come about in the last days that I will bring you against My
land, so
that the nations may know Me when I am sanctified through you before their
eyes, O Gog.”
17 ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Are you the one of whom I spoke in former
days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days
for many years that I would bring you against them?
18 “It will come about on that day, when Gog comes against the land of
Israel,” declares the Lord God, “that My fury will mount up in My
anger.
19 “In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there
will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.
20 “The fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the
field, all the creeping things that creep on the earth, and all the men who are
on the face of the earth will shake at My presence; the mountains also will
be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse and every wall will fall to
the ground.
21 “I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains,” declares
the Lord God. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother.
22 “With pestilence and with blood I will enter into judgment with him;
and I will rain on him and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with
him, a torrential rain, with hailstones, fire and brimstone.
23 “I will magnify Myself, sanctify Myself, and make Myself known in
the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the Lord.” ’
Chapter
39
Prophecy against Gog—Invaders Destroyed
1 “And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, ‘Thus says
the Lord God, “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech
and Tubal;
2 and I will turn you around, drive you on, take you up from the remotest parts
of the north and bring you against the mountains of Israel.
3 “I will strike your bow from your left hand and dash down your arrows
from your right hand.
4 “You will fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops
and the peoples who are with you; I will give you as food to every kind of
predatory bird and beast of the field.
5 “You will fall on the open field; for it is I who have spoken,” declares
the Lord God.
6 “And I will send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands
in safety; and they will know that I am the Lord.
7 “My holy name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel; and
I will not let My holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations will know
that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.
8 “Behold, it is coming and it shall be done,” declares the Lord
God. “That is the day of which I have spoken.
9 “Then those who inhabit the cities of Israel will go out and make fires
with the weapons and burn them, both shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, war
clubs and spears, and for seven years they will make fires of them.
10 “They will not take wood from the field or gather firewood from the
forests, for they will make fires with the weapons; and they will take the spoil
of those who despoiled them and seize the plunder of those who plundered them,” declares
the Lord God.
11 “On that day I will give Gog a burial ground there in Israel, the valley
of those who pass by east of the sea, and it will block off those who would pass
by. So they will bury Gog there with all his horde, and they will call it the
valley of Hamon-gog.
12 “For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order
to cleanse the land.
13 “Even all the people of the land will bury them; and it will be to
their renown on the day that I glorify Myself,” declares the Lord God.
14 “They will set apart men who will constantly pass through the land,
burying those who were passing through, even those left on the surface of the
ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search.
15 “As those who pass through the land pass through and anyone sees a man’s
bone, then he will set up a marker by it until the buriers have buried it in
the valley of Hamon-gog.
16 “And even the name of the city will be Hamonah. So they will cleanse
the land.” ’
17 “As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God, ‘Speak to every
kind of bird and to every beast of the field, “Assemble and come,
gather from every side to My sacrifice which I am going to sacrifice for you,
as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink
blood.
18 “You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes
of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats and bulls, all of them
fatlings of Bashan.
19 “So you will eat fat until you are glutted, and drink blood until you
are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
20 “You will be glutted at My table with horses and charioteers, with
mighty men and all the men of war,” declares the Lord God.
21 “And I will set My glory among the nations; and all the nations will
see My judgment which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them.
22 “And the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God from
that day onward.
23 “The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for
their iniquity because they acted treacherously against Me, and I hid My
face from them; so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of
them fell by the sword.
24 “According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions
I dealt with them, and I hid My face from them.” ’ ”
Israel Restored
25 Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Now I will restore the fortunes
of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous
for My holy name.
26 “They will forget their disgrace and all their treachery which they
perpetrated against Me, when they live securely on their own land with no
one to make them afraid.
27 “When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the
lands of their enemies, then I shall be sanctified through them in the sight
of the many nations.
28 “Then they will know that I am the Lord their God because I made them
go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them again to their own land;
and I will leave none of them there any longer.
29 “I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured
out My Spirit on the house of Israel,” declares the Lord God.
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)