Welcome to Bible Fiber, where are we encountering the textures and shades of the biblical tapestry. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern.
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This week, we are studying Ezekiel 37, which contains one of the most iconic prophetic visions in the entire Bible: The Valley of Dry Bones. Apart from God’s winged throne chariot in Chapter 1, this is the most memorable symbol in Ezekiel. The vision’s enduring popularity stems from its vivid imagery and potent message of hope. As an apocalyptic vision, it easily lends itself to endless interpretation.
Opening vision
In the previous visions in Chapter 36, Ezekiel foresaw the fertile mountains of Israel and the bustling streets of Jerusalem. Then, suddenly, God takes hold of the prophet and transports him to a valley filled with scattered and sun-bleached human bones. When Ezekiel refers to the hand of God being upon him, a recurring statement, we can see that the prophetic experience was palpable, not just a subtle feeling. The text states that God put his hand on Ezekiel, an act that preceded Ezekiel’s earlier visionary experiences (1:3, 3:14, 8:1, 37:1). After Yahweh deposited Ezekiel in the valley full of bones, he gave him a tour of the horrifying scene.
Ezekiel reports the details of his vision in an autobiographical style. What stood out to him was the sheer number of bones. As a priest, the Levitical laws forbade Ezekiel from having any contact with corpses, and now he was surrounded by death without a single sign of life (Lev. 21:11). However, he allowed God to lead him through the valley and made close observations of the bones. Initially, God does not offer any explanation for who the bones belong to or why they were left unburied, but in Verse 9, he refers to them as “the slain.” Considering the historical context of the prophecy, these bones might represent the Israelite victims of the Babylonian attack. The Babylonians would certainly not have bothered to give them a proper burial.
God then asked Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?” (37:3). Of course, Ezekiel was aware of the miracles performed by the prophets Elijah and Elisha, who brought the dead back to life (1 Kings 17:17-24; 2 Kings 4:18-37). In those cases, the deceased took their last breaths moments before being resurrected. In the valley of dry bones, the corpses had been dead for so long that all flesh had decomposed. Resurrecting them was too tall a task for any prophet; only God could perform such a supernatural miracle.
Ezekiel’s answer was completely submissive and showed his understanding of Yahweh’s limitless power. He replied, “O Lord God, you know” (37:3), which is better translated as “only you know.” Like Job once said, only God determines the number of man’s days (Job 14:5).
Though Ezekiel’s response was humbly appropriate, God invites him to actively participate in the divine work of resuscitation. He commands Ezekiel to be his conduit for the miracle that will soon take place, saying, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord” (37:4).
Ezekiel obeys, calling out to the inanimate bones to hear God’s message. Many preachers have been convicted by the sequence of events: the revival of the bones was predicated on Ezekiel’s faithfulness in delivering God’s word. Ezekiel called the bones to attention, but it was God’s spirit that reanimated them (37:5).
As the bones awakened and responded to Ezekiel’s call, he heard a rattling sound. He graphically portrayed the scene: “Suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone” (37:7). One muscle and one sinew at a time, they began to regenerate and gain flesh once again. God declares, “I will lay sinews on you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord” (37:6). In that moment, Ezekiel witnessed the bones forming into a vast army. (No wonder this vision has captured the imagination of Bible readers for centuries!)
In case Ezekiel was too dumbfounded by the vision to understand its meaning, God provides an interpretation. God shares with Ezekiel a prevalent saying among the exiles in the wake of Jerusalem’s fall. In their despair, they lamented, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely” (37:11). Through the revitalizing of the dry bones, God wanted them to understand that not all hope was lost; his covenants are not canceled. When he describes their graves being opened, he is calling them out of exile. He will pull them from the grave and give them life. They will be reestablished as a sovereign nation within their ancestral lands, fully recommitted to their covenant with Yahweh.
Historical interpretations
The famous vision is often mistaken for a doctrinal statement on bodily resurrection, providing a rare glimpse into the mindset of the ancient Israelites regarding life after death. However, the oracle’s emphasis is on national resurrection, not individual resurrection.
Ezekiel’s immediate audience understood the dry bones vision as a prediction of their return from the Babylonian exile. However, throughout the ages, people have reinterpreted the dry bones metaphor, applying it to real-world historical events. One of the most prominent modern interpretations links the vision to the restoration of the Jewish people after the Holocaust, with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 seen as a fulfillment of this prophecy.
Typically, I align with biblical scholars who caution against making overly narrow applications of apocalyptic passages in the Bible. I believe it is essential to first consider the original context and intent of the prophecy. However, I once attended a lecture at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem about the theology of the Holocaust, which gave me a new appreciation for how the Valley of Dry Bones filled a theological gap for Jewish people, and Christians, in a post-canonization world.
For many Jewish theologians and religious thinkers, the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones holds profound significance in light of the devastating events of the Holocaust and the subsequent establishment of the modern state of Israel. While it is unlikely that Ezekiel himself could have foreseen the horrors of the 20th century when he experienced this prophetic vision, the imagery he described has been interpreted by later generations as a remarkable foreshadowing of the Jewish people’s darkest hour and their miraculous restoration.
In this reading, the scattered, lifeless bones strewn across the valley represent the millions of Jewish lives lost during the unspeakable genocide of the Holocaust. Recall that Ezekiel was astonished by the vast number of bones in the valley; the number six million is still hard to grasp. The idea of these bones being reanimated and reconstituted into a living, thriving nation speaks powerfully to the rebirth of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland that occurred on the heels of the Holocaust in 1948. Just as Ezekiel’s vision promised the revivification of a decimated people, so too did the creation of Israel rise from the ashes of the Holocaust.
The Valley of Dry Bones serves as a reminder to Jewish people living today that even in their darkest moments, God’s plan for their redemption and return to the land cannot be thwarted.
Two stick sign-act
Following the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, God commands Ezekiel to perform a sign-act that reinforces the theme of national resurrection and reunification. God describes the dry bones as belonging to all the descendants of Jacob, referring to them as “the whole house of Israel” (37:11). With this segue, God tells Ezekiel to take two sticks; one should be inscribed with the name Judah and the other with the name Joseph, which he notes is also Ephraim (37:16). He is then instructed to join the two sticks together as one stick (37:17).
After King Solomon’s death, the once united monarchy divided into two kingdoms, which are typically referred to as the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. The Southern Kingdom, known as Judah, consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, while the Northern Kingdom, commonly called Ephraim or Israel, was made up of the remaining ten tribes. The term “Ephraim” is often used interchangeably with the Northern Kingdom, as the tribe of Ephraim was the dominant tribe, both numerically and politically. Ezekiel adds the identifier Joseph, the father of Ephraim, to emphasize the ancient roots.
The ten northern tribes of Israel were conquered by the Assyrian Empire in 722 BCE, leading to their exile from the region. The Assyrians implemented a policy of deportation, scattering these tribes across various territories within their empire to prevent rebellion. This dispersion led to the tribes being known as the “Lost Tribes of Israel,” as they eventually assimilated into other cultures and lost their distinct national identity. After the Assyrians exiled the Israelites, they imported people from various nations to settle in the land (2 Kings 17).
Ezekiel’s sign-act predicted a future for Ephraim. God intended to reunite all twelve tribes, making them one nation in his grip (37:19). He explains to Ezekiel, “I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone and will gather them from every quarter and bring them to their own land” (37:21).
After 130 years of exile and dispersion, Ezekiel’s audience would have assumed that Ephraim was lost to history forever. The idea of restoring Judah to the land seemed far-fetched enough. However, at least they had been recently exiled, and for the most part, they were all together in settlements in Babylon, Egypt, and Judah. Restoring Ephraim appeared impossible by human standards, but God declared that he would reverse both deportations.
The point of Ezekiel’s sign-act echoed other prophets, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, in promising the eventual return and restoration of the northern tribes to their homeland. Its closest parallel can be found in the book of Zechariah, where the prophet performed his own sign-act with two shepherd staffs named Grace and Union to represent God’s relationship with Israel. That sign-act had a different message than Ezekiel’s but very similar production.
Prophetic fulfillment
As part of the two-stick sign-act, Ezekiel publicly displayed the joined sticks for all to see and proclaimed the hope they represented. When the time of their regathering occurs, they will be one nation, in their homeland, with one king—Yahweh’s servant (37:22). During the days of the divided monarchy, they had two rival kings and multiple temples. God desired their unification under one Davidic king and one place of worship. The hope of restoration applied to all the descendants of Jacob.
In Chapter 36, God assured the exiles that he would give them a new heart and empower them with his spirit. These internal transformations made reentering the covenant relationship possible. The promises in the last section of Chapter 37 expand on that assurance. God will address every aspect of Israel’s crisis: land, peoplehood, kingship, temple, and covenant. No longer would they be tempted by idolatry or fall into apostasy (37:23). God aimed to eliminate all impediments to the covenant relationship. Under their divinely appointed king, and out of gratitude for his saving acts, they would follow God’s laws and statutes and live at peace in their land (37:24).
The return from Babylonian exile in 535 BCE under Cyrus’s edict fulfilled many aspects of this prophecy. However, the scope of Ezekiel’s prophecy goes well beyond what Israel ever achieved. With the waves of returnees led by Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Israel once again established residence in their homeland. They rid themselves of idol worship, rebuilt their temple, and reinstated the sacrificial system. However, they never had another Davidic king and were never quite sovereign, apart from the century of self-rule under the Hasmoneans (167-163 BCE).
No one could argue that they achieved the level of peace and abundance outlined in Ezekiel’s vision. This partial fulfillment points to a dual nature of prophetic promises—an immediate, historical fulfillment and a future, more complete realization. Ezekiel’s vision of eternal restoration is the hope that every Israelite awaits, but the prophet gives no indication of when it will be fulfilled. What he does emphasize is that when it is fulfilled, it will last forever. The Hebrew word for forever (olam) is repeated five times in four verses (37:25-28).
In Christian theology, this concept is often referred to as “already, but not yet.” Messianic prophecies frequently experienced a partial fulfillment in the short term while also having a more complete realization in either the first or second coming of Christ. The initial return from Babylon served as a foretaste of God’s ultimate intentions, while the full realization of these promises is associated with the return of Christ and the establishment of his kingdom. The anticipated fulfillment of this eschatological event is expected to bring forth the complete peace, security, and prosperity described by Ezekiel, including supernatural abundance and a perfect bond between God and all of creation.
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Until next week, Am Israel Chai!