Ezekiel 37:16-17

37:16 “As for you, son of man, take one branch, and write on it, ‘For Judah, and for the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another branch and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the branch of Ephraim and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ 37:17 Join ¹  them as one stick; ²  they will be as one in your hand.

Ezekiel 37:1

The Valley of Dry Bones

37:1 The hand ³  of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and placed ⁴  me in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones.

Ezekiel 9:1-3

The Execution of Idolaters

9:1 Then he shouted in my ears, “Approach, ⁵  you who are to visit destruction on the city, each with his destructive weapon in his hand!” 9:2 Next, I noticed ⁶  six men ⁷  coming from the direction of the upper gate ⁸  which faces north, each with his war club in his hand. Among them was a man dressed in linen with a writing kit ⁹  at his side. They came and stood beside the bronze altar.

9:3 Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub where it had rested to the threshold of the temple. ¹⁰  He called to the man dressed in linen who had the writing kit at his side.

Zechariah 10:6

10:6 “I (says the Lord) will strengthen the kingdom ¹¹  of Judah and deliver the people of Joseph ¹²  and will bring them back ¹³  because of my compassion for them. They will be as though I had never rejected them, for I am the Lord their God and therefore I will hear them.

Ephesians 2:13-14

2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴  2:14 For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one ¹⁵  and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility,

Colossians 3:11

3:11 Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave ¹⁶  or free, but Christ is all and in all.

¹ tn Heb “bring near.”

² tn Heb “one to one for you for one stick.”

³ tn Or “power.”

⁴ tn Heb “caused me to rest.”

⁵ tc Heb “they approached.” Reading the imperative assumes the same consonantal text but different vowels.

⁶ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

⁷ sn The six men plus the scribe would equal seven, which was believed by the Babylonians to be the number of planetary deities.

⁸ sn The upper gate was built by Jotham (2 Kgs 15:35).

⁹ tn Or “a scribe’s inkhorn.” The Hebrew term occurs in the OT only in Ezek 9 and is believed to be an Egyptian loanword.

¹⁰ tn Heb “house.”

¹¹ tn Heb “the house.”

¹² tn Or “the kingdom of Israel”; Heb “the house of Joseph.”

¹³ tc The anomalous MT reading וְחוֹשְׁבוֹתִים (vÿkhoshÿvotim) should probably be וַהֲשִׁי בוֹתִם (vahashi votim), the Hiphil perfect consecutive of שׁוּב (shuv), “return” (cf. Jer 12:15).

¹⁴ tn Or “have come near in the blood of Christ.”

¹⁵ tn Grk “who made the both one.”

¹⁶ tn See the note on “fellow slave” in 1:7.