Ezekiel 37

The power of the LORD came on me. He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley, and the valley was full of bones.

1The 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,

Note"The hand of the LORD was upon me" is a fixed prophetic idiom for being seized and overpowered by God, a compelling force that takes the prophet somewhere or makes him speak, not a literal touch. Ezekiel uses it to mark the start of his visions.

2He led me all around among them. There were a great many bones lying on the floor of the valley, and they were very dry.

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

NoteBones lying exposed on open ground, unburied and bleached dry, would have struck ancient readers as an atrocity: leaving the dead unburied was one of the worst fates imaginable, and a valley strewn with bones pictures a battlefield whose casualties nobody ever collected. Verse 9 confirms these are "the slain."

3He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I answered, "Lord GOD, only you know."

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

Note"Son of man" is how God addresses Ezekiel throughout the book, a Hebrew phrase meaning simply "human being," "mortal." It marks the distance between the speaker and the man he is speaking to. Where the printed text has LORD or GOD in capitals it stands for the personal name of Israel's God, which Jewish tradition does not pronounce; "Lord GOD" renders the pair of Hebrew words Adonai YHWH, roughly "the Sovereign, the LORD."

4Then he said to me, "Speak my message over these bones. Say to them, 'Dry bones, listen to the word of the LORD.

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

5This is what the Lord GOD says to these bones: I am going to make breath come into you, and you will live.

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

NoteOne Hebrew word, ruach, runs through this whole vision, and English needs three words for it: "breath" here and in verses 6, 8, 9 and 10, "winds" in verse 9, and "Spirit" in verses 1 and 14. The play on the single word is deliberate and cannot be reproduced in English.

6I will attach tendons to you, make flesh grow on you, and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you, and you will live. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'"

6And 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.

7So I spoke the message, just as I had been told. While I was speaking there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, each bone joining the bone it belonged to.

7So 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.

8As I watched, tendons appeared on them, flesh grew on them, and skin covered them. But there was no breath in them.

8And 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.

9Then he said to me, "Speak my message to the breath. Speak, son of man, and say to the breath, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe into these dead bodies, so that they may live.'"

9Then 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.

Note"The four winds" means the four directions of the compass: that is, from every quarter of the world, from everywhere at once.

10So I spoke the message, just as he told me, and the breath came into them. They came to life and stood up on their feet, a huge army.

10So 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.

11Then he said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Listen to what they say: 'Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, we are cut off completely.'

11Then 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.

NoteEzekiel was writing among Judeans deported to Babylon after Jerusalem's defeat. "Cut off" translates a phrase used of a branch severed from a tree or a person cut off from their people, the exiles are saying they are finished, with no future as a people. "The whole house of Israel" means the entire nation descended from Jacob, both the northern and southern parts (see verse 16).

12So speak my message and say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up out of them, and I will bring you into the land of Israel.

12Therefore 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.

NoteIsraelites were usually buried in family tombs, caves or chambers cut into rock and closed with a stone, so "open your graves" pictures rolling back that stone. The graves here stand for exile in a foreign country; the promise is return to the land, not a general statement about the dead.

13My people, you will know that I am the LORD when I open your graves and bring you up out of them.

13And 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,

14I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live. I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have said it and have done it, says the LORD.'"

14And 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.

15The word of the LORD came to me again. He said:

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

16"Son of man, take one stick and write on it, 'For Judah and for the Israelites who belong with him.' Then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel who belong with him.'

16Moreover, 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:

NoteProphets regularly performed acted-out signs, small public dramas whose meaning they then explained, and this is one of them. The word translated "stick" means a piece of wood, and could be either a wooden writing board or a staff of the kind that stood for a tribe. The two names mark the two halves of a divided nation: after Solomon's death (about 930 BC) the twelve tribes split into a southern kingdom, Judah, with its capital at Jerusalem, and a northern kingdom of ten tribes. Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh headed the largest northern tribes, so "Ephraim" and "Joseph" are used as names for the north as a whole.

17Then join the two sticks together into one stick, so that they become one in your hand.

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

18When your people ask you, 'Aren't you going to tell us what you mean by these?'

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

19say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph, which is in Ephraim's hand, along with the tribes of Israel who belong with him. I will put them together with the stick of Judah and make them one stick, and they will be one in my hand.'

19Say unto 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 mine hand.

20Hold the sticks you have written on in your hand where the people can see them.

20And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.

21Then say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: I am going to take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land.

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

NoteThe King James "heathen" translates a Hebrew word meaning simply "the nations", the peoples other than Israel. It carries no sneer about their beliefs; it is a plain word for foreigners, and here means the countries the exiles were scattered into.

22I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over all of them. They will never again be two nations, and they will never again be split into two kingdoms.

22And 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:

NoteThe northern kingdom was destroyed by Assyria in 722 BC and much of its population deported; the southern kingdom fell to Babylon in 586 BC. By Ezekiel's day the split had lasted roughly three and a half centuries and looked permanent.

23They will no longer make themselves unclean with their idols, or with the disgusting things they worship, or with any of the wrongs they have done. I will save them from all the places where they lived and sinned, and I will make them clean. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

23Neither 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 dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

Note"Defile" and "make clean" are ritual terms rather than terms of hygiene: to be clean was to be fit to approach God and take part in worship, and to be unclean was to be barred from it until the state was put right. "Detestable things" is a stock Hebrew word for images of other gods and the objects used in their worship.

24My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will live by my rules and carefully keep my laws.

24And 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.

NoteDavid had been dead some four hundred years when Ezekiel wrote. "My servant David" means a king of David's line, the name of the founding king used for the dynasty and the ideal ruler it was expected to produce. Calling a king a "shepherd" was ordinary political language across the ancient Near East, where kings routinely described themselves as shepherds of their people; it says something about the job, not about the countryside.

25They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, where your ancestors lived. They will live there forever, they and their children and their children's children, and my servant David will be their ruler forever.

25And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.

NoteJacob was the grandson of Abraham and the ancestor of the twelve tribes; he was also given the name Israel, which is why the nation carries it.

26I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be a lasting agreement with them. I will settle them, make them many, and place my holy house among them forever.

26Moreover 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.

NoteA covenant was a formal binding agreement, sworn and public, of the kind made between a king and his subjects or between two states, closer to a treaty than to a private promise. "My holy house" translates a word meaning sanctuary: the temple, the building set apart for God's presence among the people.

27My dwelling place will be with them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

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

NoteThe King James "tabernacle" is the word for a dwelling place, and specifically for the portable tent-shrine Israel carried through the wilderness. The image is of God pitching his tent in the middle of the camp and living there.

28Then the nations will know that I, the LORD, set Israel apart as holy, when my holy house is among them forever.'"

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

Note"Sanctify" and "holy" translate words meaning set apart, marked off from ordinary use for God's exclusive purposes. The primary sense is separateness rather than moral goodness.