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 around: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and lo, they were very dry.

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

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

⁵ Thus saith the Lord GOD to 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 to me, Prophesy to 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 to 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 to them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come 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 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.

¹⁵ The word of the LORD came again to me, saying,

¹⁶ Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions:

¹⁷ And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thy hand.

¹⁸ And when the children of thy people shall speak to thee, saying, Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these?

¹⁹ Say to them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand.

²⁰ And the sticks on which thou writest shall be in thy hand before their eyes.

²¹ And say to them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:

²² And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:

²³ Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

²⁴ And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.

²⁵ And they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my servant, in which your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell in it, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.

²⁶ Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.

²⁷ My tabernacle also shall be with them: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

²⁸ And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for ever.

¹ The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

² Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen:

³ To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs, being seen by them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

⁴ And being assembled with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard from me.

⁵ For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.

⁶ When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

⁷ And he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

⁸ But ye shall receive power after the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses to me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth.

⁹ And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

¹⁰ And while they looked steadfastly towards heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

¹¹ Who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up to heaven? this same Jesus who is taken from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

¹² Then they returned to Jerusalem, from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.

¹³ And when they had come in, they went into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.

¹⁴ These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

¹⁵ And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said (the number of the names together were about a hundred and twenty,)

¹⁶ Men, brethren, This scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit by the mouth of David spoke before concerning Judas, who was guide to them that took Jesus.

¹⁷ For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.

¹⁸ Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.

¹⁹ And it was known to all the dwellers at Jerusalem; so that that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.

²⁰ For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell in it: and, His bishopric let another take.

²¹ Wherefore, of these men who accompanied us, all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,

²² Beginning from the baptism of John, to that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.

²³ And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.

²⁴ And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show which of these two thou hast chosen,

²⁵ That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.

²⁶ And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.