The Sovereign LORD will destroy death forever! He will wipe away the tears from everyone's eyes and take away the disgrace his people have suffered throughout the world. The LORD himself has spoken.

I felt the powerful presence of the LORD, and his spirit took me and set me down in a valley where the ground was covered with bones.

He said to me, "Mortal man, can these bones come back to life?" I replied, "Sovereign LORD, only you can answer that!"

Tell them that I, the Sovereign LORD, am saying to them: I am going to put breath into you and bring you back to life.

So I prophesied as I had been told. While I was speaking, I heard a rattling noise, and the bones began to join together.

God said to me, "Mortal man, prophesy to the wind. Tell the wind that the Sovereign LORD commands it to come from every direction, to breathe into these dead bodies, and to bring them back to life."

God said to me, "Mortal man, the people of Israel are like these bones. They say that they are dried up, without any hope and with no future.

When I open the graves where my people are buried and bring them out, they will know that I am the LORD.

In two or three days he will revive us, and we will live in his presence.

I will not save this people from the world of the dead or rescue them from the power of death. Bring on your plagues, death! Bring on your destruction, world of the dead! I will no longer have pity for this people.

Do not be surprised at this; the time is coming when all the dead will hear his voice

and come out of their graves: those who have done good will rise and live, and those who have done evil will rise and be condemned.

I have the same hope in God that these themselves have, namely, that all people, both the good and the bad, will rise from death.

For just as all people die because of their union with Adam, in the same way all will be raised to life because of their union with Christ.

But each one will be raised in proper order: Christ, first of all; then, at the time of his coming, those who belong to him.

We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will take back with Jesus those who have died believing in him.

W_ hat we are teaching you now is the Lord's teaching: we who are alive on the day the Lord comes will not go ahead of those who have died.

(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over.) This is the first raising of the dead.

Happy and greatly blessed are those who are included in this first raising of the dead. The second death has no power over them; they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they will rule with him for a thousand years.

And I saw the dead, great and small alike, standing before the throne. Books were opened, and then another book was opened, the book of the living. The dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books.

the graves broke open, and many of God's people who had died were raised to life.

He went into the presence of Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate gave orders for the body to be given to Joseph.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will live, even though they die;

and those who live and believe in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

But the truth is that Christ has been raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised.

But each one will be raised in proper order: Christ, first of all; then, at the time of his coming, those who belong to him.

All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death,

He will change our weak mortal bodies and make them like his own glorious body, using that power by which he is able to bring all things under his rule.

My throat is as dry as dust, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have left me for dead in the dust.

You have sent troubles and suffering on me, but you will restore my strength; you will keep me from the grave.

Many of those who have already died will live again: some will enjoy eternal life, and some will suffer eternal disgrace.

for anything that is clearly revealed becomes light. That is why it is said, "Wake up, sleeper, and rise from death, and Christ will shine on you."

and their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, where their Lord was crucified. The symbolic name of that city is Sodom, or Egypt.

The people of the earth will be happy because of the death of these two. They will celebrate and send presents to each other, because those two prophets brought much suffering upon the whole human race.

there were no plants on the earth and no seeds had sprouted, because he had not sent any rain, and there was no one to cultivate the land;

but water would come up from beneath the surface and water the ground.

My teaching will fall like drops of rain and form on the earth like dew. My words will fall like showers on young plants, like gentle rain on tender grass.

About the tribe of Joseph he said: "May the LORD bless their land with rain And with water from under the earth.

So Jacob's descendants live in peace, secure in a land full of grain and wine, where dew from the sky waters the ground.

I was like a tree whose roots always have water and whose branches are wet with dew.

On the day you fight your enemies, your people will volunteer. Like the dew of early morning your young men will come to you on the sacred hills.

I will be to the people of Israel like rain in a dry land. They will blossom like flowers; they will be firmly rooted like the trees of Lebanon.

They will plant their crops in peace. Their vines will bear grapes, the earth will produce crops, and there will be plenty of rain. I will give all these blessings to the people of my nation who survive.

Then the sea gave up its dead. Death and the world of the dead also gave up the dead they held. And all were judged according to what they had done.