Ezekiel 37:1-14

New Catholic Bible

Chapter 37

Vision of the Dry Bones.^{[a] 1} The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he carried me away by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley that was full of bones. ² He made me walk among them in every direction so that I would be aware how great was the number of these bones on the floor of the valley, and they were exceedingly dry.

³ He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I replied, “Lord God, only you can know that.” ⁴ Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵ Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I am going to cause breath to enter you, and you will come to life. ⁶ I will put sinews on you and cause flesh to grow over you and cover you with skin. I will put breath within you, and you will live, and you will know that I am the Lord.”

⁷ Therefore, I prophesied as I had been commanded to do, and as I was prophesying, I heard a noise, a sound of rattling, as the bones came together, bone uniting with bone. ⁸ As I watched, sinews and flesh grew upon the bones, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the Spirit. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the Spirit: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O Spirit, and breathe into these slain so that they may live.” ¹⁰ I prophesied as he had commanded me, and the Spirit entered into them. They came to life and stood on their feet, an immense army.

¹¹ Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They continue to say, ‘Our bones are dried up, our hope has vanished, and we are cut off completely.’ ¹² Therefore, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: My people, I am going to open your graves and raise you up from them and bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you up from them, O my people. ¹⁴ When I put my Spirit within you, you will live, and I will resettle you on your own soil. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and I have done this, says the Lord.’ ”