Ezekiel 37

The Valley of Dry Bones

1 ¹The hand of the LORD was upon me, and ²he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley;^[a] it was full of bones.

2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry.

3 And he said to me, ³"Son of man, ⁴can these bones live?" And ⁵I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know."

4 Then he said to me, ⁶"Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, ⁷O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.

5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause ⁸breath^[b] to enter you, and you shall live.

6 ⁹And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and ¹⁰cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, ¹¹and you shall know that I am the LORD."

7 So I prophesied ¹²as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, ¹³a rattling,^[c] and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

8 And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But ¹⁴there was no breath in them.

9 Then he said to me, ¹⁵"Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, ¹⁶son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from ¹⁷the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live."

10 So I prophesied ¹⁸as he commanded me, and ¹⁹the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

11 Then he said to me, ²⁰"Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, 'Our bones are dried up, and ²¹our hope is lost; ²²we are indeed cut off.'

12 Therefore ²³prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, ²⁴I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And ²⁵I will bring you into the land of Israel.

13 And ²⁶you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people.

14 And ²⁷I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; ²⁸I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD."

I Will Be Their God, They Shall Be My People

15 The word of the LORD came to me:

16 ²⁹"Son of man, ³⁰take a stick^[d] and write on it, 'For ³¹Judah, and ³²the people of Israel associated with him'; then take another stick and write on it, 'For ³³Joseph (the stick of ³⁴Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.'

17 And ³⁵join them one to another into one stick, that ³⁶they may become ³⁷one in your hand.

18 And when ³⁸your people say to you, ³⁹'Will you not tell us what you mean by these?'

19 say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am about to take ⁴⁰the stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the ⁴¹stick of Judah,^[e] and ⁴²make them one stick, ⁴³that they may be one in my hand.

20 When the sticks on which you write are in your hand ⁴⁴before their eyes,

21 then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, ⁴⁵I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and ⁴⁶bring them to their own land.

22 And ⁴⁷I will make them one nation in the land, on ⁴⁸the mountains of Israel. And ⁴⁹one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer ⁵⁰two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms.

23 ⁵¹They shall not ⁵²defile themselves anymore ⁵³with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But ⁵⁴I will save them from all the backslidings^[f] in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and ⁵⁵they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

24 "My servant ⁵⁶David ⁵⁷shall be king over them, and they shall all have ⁵⁸one shepherd. ⁵⁹They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes.

25 ⁶⁰They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there ⁶¹forever, and David my servant shall be their prince ⁶²forever.

26 ⁶³I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be ⁶⁴an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land^[g] and ⁶⁵multiply them, and will ⁶⁶set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore.

27 ⁶⁷My dwelling place shall be with them, ⁶⁸and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

28 Then ⁶⁹the nations will know that ⁷⁰I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when ⁷¹my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore."

Ezekiel 37 Commentary

Chapter 37

God restores dried bones to life. (1-14) The whole house of Israel is represented as enjoying the blessings of Christ's kingdom. (15-28)

Verses 1-14 No created power could restore human bones to life. God alone could cause them to live. Skin and flesh covered them, and the wind was then told to blow upon these bodies; and they were restored to life. The wind was an emblem of the Spirit of God, and represented his quickening powers. The vision was to encourage the desponding Jews; to predict both their restoration after the captivity, and also their recovery from their present and long-continued dispersion. It was also a clear intimation of the resurrection of the dead; and it represents the power and grace of God, in the conversion of the most hopeless sinners to himself. Let us look to Him who will at last open our graves, and bring us forth to judgment, that He may now deliver us from sin, and put his Spirit within us, and keep us by his power, through faith, unto salvation.

Verses 15-28 This emblem was to show the people, that the Lord would unite Judah and Israel. Christ is the true David, Israel's King of old; and those whom he makes willing in the day of his power, he makes to walk in his judgments, and to keep his statutes. Events yet to come will further explain this prophecy. Nothing has more hindered the success of the gospel than divisions. Let us study to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; let us seek for Divine grace to keep us from detestable things; and let us pray that all nations may be obedient and happy subjects of the Son of David, that the Lord may be our God, and we may be his people for evermore.

Cross References

• 1. See Ezekiel 1:3
• 2. See Ezekiel 3:12
• 3. See Ezekiel 2:1
• 4. [1 Corinthians 15:35]
• 5. [Deuteronomy 32:39; John 5:21]
• 6. [Ezekiel 6:2]
• 7. [John 5:28]
• 8. [Genesis 2:7]
• 9. [ver. 8]
• 10. [ver. 8]
• 11. See Ezekiel 6:7
• 12. Ezekiel 12:7; Ezekiel 24:18
• 13. [1 Kings 19:11]
• 14. [ver. 5]
• 15. [See ver. 4 above]
• 16. [See ver. 3 above]
• 17. Daniel 7:2; Daniel 11:4; Revelation 7:1
• 18. [See ver. 7 above]
• 19. Revelation 11:11
• 20. [See ver. 3 above]
• 21. [Ezekiel 33:10; Isaiah 49:14]
• 22. Lamentations 3:54
• 23. [See ver. 4 above]
• 24. [Isaiah 26:19; Hosea 13:14]
• 25. ver. 21, 25; Ezekiel 36:24
• 26. See Ezekiel 6:7
• 27. Ezekiel 36:27
• 28. See Ezekiel 17:24
• 29. See Ezekiel 2:1
• 30. [Numbers 17:2]
• 31. [Zechariah 10:6]
• 32. 2 Chr. 11:12, 13, 16; 2 Chronicles 15:9; 2 Chronicles 30:11, 18
• 33. [Zechariah 10:6]
• 34. Gen. 48:13, 14, 19; [Hosea 5:3, 5]
• 35. [ver. 22, 24]
• 36. [Isaiah 11:13]
• 37. [Ezekiel 35:10]
• 38. See Ezekiel 33:2
• 39. See Ezekiel 12:9
• 40. [ver. 16]
• 41. [ver. 16]
• 42. [ver. 17]
• 43. [See ver. 17 above]
• 44. See Ezekiel 12:3
• 45. ver. 25; Ezekiel 36:24; See Ezekiel 11:17
• 46. ver. 25; Ezekiel 36:24; See Ezekiel 11:17
• 47. [ver. 17; Jeremiah 50:4]
• 48. See Ezekiel 6:2
• 49. [ver. 24, 25; Ezekiel 34:24]
• 50. [Ezekiel 35:10]
• 51. [Ezekiel 36:25]
• 52. Ezekiel 14:11
• 53. Ezekiel 36:25
• 54. Ezekiel 36:29
• 55. Ezekiel 34:24, 30; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Revelation 21:3; See Exodus 29:45; Leviticus 26:12
• 56. See Ezekiel 34:23
• 57. See Jeremiah 23:5
• 58. [ver. 22]
• 59. Ezekiel 36:27
• 60. Ezekiel 28:25
• 61. Isaiah 60:21; Joel 3:20; Amos 9:15
• 62. [John 12:34]
• 63. Ezekiel 34:25
• 64. See Isaiah 55:3
• 65. See Ezekiel 36:10
• 66. ver. 28; Ezekiel 43:7; See Ezekiel 11:16
• 67. Leviticus 26:11; Revelation 21:3
• 68. [See ver. 23 above]
• 69. See Ezekiel 36:23
• 70. See Ezekiel 20:12
• 71. [See ver. 26 above]

Footnotes

• [a]. Or plain; also verse 2
• [b]. Or spirit; also verses 6, 9, 10
• [c]. Or an earthquake (compare 3:12, 13)
• [d]. Or one piece of wood; also verses 17, 19, 20
• [e]. Hebrew And I will place them on it, the stick of Judah
• [f]. Many Hebrew manuscripts; other Hebrew manuscripts dwellings
• [g]. Hebrew lacks in their land

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 37

This chapter contains a prophecy of the Jews' return from captivity to their own land; of the union of the each tribes with one another; and of the glorious kingdom of Christ among them. Their restoration is represented by a vision of dry bones made alive; the place in which they were; the condition they were in; and the manner in which they were made to live, are described, Eze 37:1-10, the explication and application of this vision to the Jews, Eze 37:11-14, their union is signified by a sign or emblem of two sticks, which became one in the hand of the prophet, Eze 37:15-17, the meaning of this is shown, Eze 37:18-20, then follow promises of their return to their own land, in express words; of their being one kingdom, under one King, Christ, the antitype of David, of their sanctification; of their covenant interest in God, made manifest to them; and of his presence, and dwelling among them, Eze 37:21-28.