Friday, August 21, 2026

¹The LORD's hand was on me, and he brought me out in the LORD's Spirit, and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones.

²He caused me to pass by them all around; and behold, there were very many in the open valley, and behold, they were very dry.

³He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I answered, "Lord GOD, you know."

⁴Again he said to me, "Prophesy over these bones, and tell them, 'You dry bones, hear the LORD's word.

⁵The Lord GOD says to these bones: "Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you will live.

⁶I will lay sinews on you, and will bring up flesh on you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you will live. Then you will know that I am the LORD."'"

⁷So I prophesied as I was commanded. As I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, there was an earthquake. Then the bones came together, bone to its bone.

⁸I saw, and, behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh came up, and skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them.

⁹Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and tell the wind, 'The Lord GOD says: "Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live."'"

¹⁰So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

¹¹Then 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 is lost. We are completely cut off.'

¹²Therefore prophesy, and tell them, 'The Lord GOD says: "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.

¹³You 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.

¹⁴I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live. Then I will place you in your own land; and you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it," says the LORD.'"

²Let the redeemed by the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the adversary,

³and gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

⁴They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way. They found no city to live in.

⁵Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

⁶Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.

⁷He led them also by a straight way, that they might go to a city to live in.

⁸Let them praise the LORD for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!

⁹For he satisfies the longing soul. He fills the hungry soul with good.

³⁴But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered themselves together.

³⁵One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him.

³⁶"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?"

³⁷Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'

³⁸This is the first and great commandment.

³⁹A second likewise is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'

⁴⁰The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."