The Valley of Dry Bones
The sun-bleached skeletons scattered across Ezekiel's vision plain — representing hopeless, exiled Israel — that rattled bone to bone at the spoken Word and stood as a mighty army when the breath of God entered them.
In Ezekiel 37, the LORD explains the identity of the scattered, sun-bleached skeletons on the plain: 'These bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost"' (Ezekiel 37:11). In two distinct stages — first the rattling assembly of bone to bone with sinews, flesh, and skin at the spoken Word, and second the infilling of the breath (Ruach) from the four winds — the graveyard was raised into 'an exceedingly great army' (Ezekiel 37:7–10).
The Dry Bones — Ezekiel in the Valley of Skeletons, The Rattling of Bone to Bone & The Four Winds of the Spirit
Dropped into a valley of sun-bleached skeletons, Ezekiel prophesies God's Word and calls for the breath of God (Hebrew: Ruach) until a vast army stands alive.
