¹ The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,

² And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.

³ And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.

⁴ Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.

⁵ Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:

⁶ And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall 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 shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

⁸ And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

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

¹¹ Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

¹² Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

¹³ And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,

¹⁴ And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

¹ What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh?

² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.

³ For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."

⁴ Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed.

⁵ But to him who doesn't work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

⁶ Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works,

⁷ "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

⁸ Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin."

⁹ Is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.

¹⁰ How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

¹¹ He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them.

¹² He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.

¹³ For the promise to Abraham and to his seed that he should be heir of the world wasn't through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

¹⁴ For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect.

¹⁵ For the law works wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.

¹⁶ For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

¹⁷ As it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations." This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.

¹⁸ Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, "So will your seed be."

¹⁹ Without being weakened in faith, he didn't consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

²⁰ Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn't waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,

²¹ and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.

²² Therefore it also was "reckoned to him for righteousness."

²³ Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,

²⁴ but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead,

²⁵ who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.