Ezekiel 37:1-14

1-14. This is one of the most marvelous visions of the Old Testament. The companions of Ezekiel were in hopeless despair. Israel had been moldering in an Assyrian grave nearly one hundred and fifty years, and now all Judah, excepting a small and unworthy remnant, was buried in Babylon, without any hope of resurrection (Ezekiel 37:11),while Jerusalem and the holy temple had been totally destroyed. Ezekiel had tried to awaken his fellow-captives from their dull and voiceless stupor (Ezekiel 24:17; Ezekiel 24:22) by a bright vision of a future when they should return to their home land and enjoy the fullness of temporal and churchly prosperity (36), but all his hopeful prophecies had proved ineffectual. They could not believe. Then God lifted his prophet “by the power of the Spirit” into ecstatic vision, and he found himself alone in the midst of a deserted battlefield (Ezekiel 37:9-10) strewn with bones. He passed through this desolation and noticed that every vestige of life had disappeared from the dried-up remains. There was nothing left for even the vultures to feed upon. Long ago every skeleton had been cleaned by the jackals’ teeth and the broken parts scattered far and wide. The bones were many and they were very dry. The valley was a charnel house, visibly displaying the absolute victory of death over life. Then came the question from heaven, “Can these bones live?” and the humble answer, “O Adoni Jehovah, thou knowest.” Then the prophetic impulse came upon the prophet, and with faith that the Almighty was still able to breathe the breath of life into the lifeless (Ezekiel 37:5; Genesis 2:7) he cried unto the withered and dislocated skeletons, “O bones, hear the word of the Lord,” and even as he began to speak the words which to any listener would have seemed a mere sound in the air there came a mysterious noise followed by a groaning as of an “earthquake” (Ezekiel 37:7, R.V., Kautzsch), and the prophet saw a terrifying sight, for each bone was rushing toward its fellow; and when he dared to look again “lo, there were sinews upon them, and flesh came up and skin covered them” (Ezekiel 37:8, R.V.). They were no longer skeletons, for all the organs of life were there, but they were still dead bodies. Then the prophet once more took heart and finished the prophecy (compare Ezekiel 37:6; Ezekiel 37:9), crying to the universal life-giving divine Spirit to breathe life into these slain, and even as he spake, so was it done! It must be remembered that the same word in Hebrew may be translated either “wind,” “breath,” or “spirit.” Jehovah himself interpreted the vision. Israel and Judah were not only dead corpses, but their bones were “dried up” and they were “clean cut off,” as they themselves declared (Ezekiel 37:11); yet, since Jehovah still lived, the case was not entirely hopeless, for God could raise the dead. Out of the graves of the Assyrian and Babylonian captivity those fragments of a people should surely come forth through his power (Ezekiel 37:12-13), and not only receive again the social and civil institutions, which were the organs of national life, but should be spiritually regenerated (Ezekiel 37:14; Ezekiel 36:26-27; compare Godet, Studies in the Old Testament; Maurice, The Prophets; Cornill, Das Buch Ezechiel). Cornill has called this “one of the noblest passages the Old Testament can show.” Its influence upon the national thought was incalculable. Darmesteter tells of the rabbi whom he met in India who referred to a village, named Gilead, which he had visited in an obscure part of Persia, the population of which he believed to be descended from the bones resurrected by Ezekiel! ( Les Prophetes D’Israel, p. 107.) But the fact is that all Israel is descended from these bodies re-animated by prophecy. If it had not been for the resurrection trumpet-note of hope which Ezekiel blew it looks as if the whole nation would have perished in despair. It may be added that while this vision teaches a national, not an individual, resurrection (as Hosea 6:2; Hosea 13:14), yet the idea of a personal resurrection was even then not unknown. (Compare Isaiah 26:19; Job 14:13, etc.; and especially note Daniel 12:2.)