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 I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit,

² that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.

³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers' sake, my relatives according to the flesh,

⁴ who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;

⁵ of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.

⁶ But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel.

⁷ Neither, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children. But, "In Isaac will your seed be called."

⁸ That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as a seed.

⁹ For this is a word of promise, "At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son."

¹⁰ Not only so, but Rebecca also conceived by one, by our father Isaac.

¹¹ For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls,

¹² it was said to her, "The elder will serve the younger."

¹³ Even as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

¹⁴ What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be!

¹⁵ For he said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

¹⁶ So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.

¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

¹⁸ So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.

¹⁹ You will say then to me, "Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?"

²⁰ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?"

²¹ Or hasn't the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?

²² What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction,

²³ and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,

²⁴ us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?

²⁵ As he says also in Hosea, "I will call them 'my people,' which were not my people; and her 'beloved,' who was not beloved."

²⁶ "It will be that in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' There they will be called 'children of the living God.'"

²⁷ Isaiah cries concerning Israel, "If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved;

²⁸ for He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth."

²⁹ As Isaiah has said before, "Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah."

³⁰ What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn't follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;

³¹ but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn't arrive at the law of righteousness.

³² Why? Because they didn't seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone;

³³ even as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed."