No one hopes that scattered, detached bones might live. Can these bones live? One might hope that a recently dead corpse might somehow resuscitate. Yet when something has been dead so long, we give up hope it will ever live again.ĭ. If something never had life, it would not leave bones. Bones are what remain when life has passed. Dry bones are not only dead they have been long dead. Indeed they were very dry: Apart from their presence in a living body, bones are dead. “The vision may have been prompted by the actual memory of seeing the Israelite dead strewn outside Jerusalem or scattered along the desert road that led Ezekiel and his companions into exile.” (Taylor)Ĭ. As an Israelite and especially as a priest, Ezekiel knew how important was the proper treatment of human corpses.” (Block) “The bones lay on the surface of the valley, like the remains of corpses denied a proper burial and left for scavenging buzzards. These bones were obviously denied proper burial. In the thinking of ancient Israel (and the ancient Near East), an unburied corpse with exposed remains was a shocking disgrace to the dead. The people represented by these bones were not only dead they were also disgraced. biqa), and probably the same location is intended.” (Taylor) “The valley is the same word as the ‘plain’ in Ezekiel 3:22 (Heb. Ezekiel saw them all around, noticing there were very many in the open valley. This was truly Death Valley the floor of the valley was so dense with human bones that it was described as full of bones. In the midst of the valley and it was full of bones: Ezekiel saw a large expanse, a valley. Ezekiel was brought out in the Spirit of the Lord, that is, in vision, and set down in the valley.” (Feinberg)ī. “The mention of the hand of the Lord indicates prophetic ecstasy and inspiration. We regard what follows as something Ezekiel saw as a vision, not with his physical sense of sight. The hand of the LORD came upon me: Ezekiel’s remarkable prophetic experience is not specifically called a vision, but that seems to be the sense of the phrase, brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD. And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord GOD, You know.”Ī. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley and indeed they were very dry. The hand of the LORD came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley and it was full of bones. Life to Dry Bones and Unity to God’s Peopleġ.
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