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Ezekiel 37

KJV · Chapter 37/48

1The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,

2And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.

3And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.

4Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

5Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:

6And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

7So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

8And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

9Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

10So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

11Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

12Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

13And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,

14And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.

15The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,

16Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions:

17And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.

18And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?

19Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.

20And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.

21And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:

22And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:

23Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

24And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.

25And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.

26Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.

27My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

28And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

In the book's most famous vision, Ezekiel sees a valley full of dry bones that receive flesh, skin, and the breath of life, symbolizing the national restoration of Israel; afterward, he joins two pieces of wood together, representing the reunification of Judah and Israel under a single king.

Explanation

The vision of the valley of dry bones is one of the most powerful images in the entire Bible, responding directly to the despair of the exiled people, who felt like 'dry bones' without hope (v.11). The two-stage process — first the bones reconnect and receive flesh, then they receive breath (the same Hebrew word for 'spirit' and 'wind,' ruach) — shows that external restoration without inner spiritual life remains incomplete. The union of the two sticks representing Judah and Israel (divided since the time of Rehoboam, around 930 BC) promises the end of a centuries-long division between the Northern and Southern kingdoms, under a single Davidic shepherd. The central message is that no situation is so dead or divided that it lies beyond God's restoring power.

Fun facts

  • The Hebrew word 'ruach,' used repeatedly throughout this chapter, means 'wind,' 'breath,' and 'spirit' all at once — a theological wordplay that connects the creation of the first man (Genesis 2:7) with this new national creation.
  • This vision inspired the African-American spiritual 'Dem Bones' (Dry Bones), which became popular in the twentieth century and remains one of the best-known cultural references to a passage from the book of Ezekiel.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Ezekiel 37:1The question ‘can these bones live?,’ put to Ezekiel in a valley full of completely dry bones, is rhetorical: no human answer would make sense in the face of such old bones, which makes what happens next even more striking.
  2. Ezekiel 37:2It describes the scene: bones, very many, scattered across the whole valley and completely dry — an image of old death, with no apparent chance of life.
  3. Ezekiel 37:3The question exposes the human impossibility of the scene: only God could answer whether those dry bones could live again.
  4. Ezekiel 37:4An order that seems strange at first: to speak directly to dry bones, as though they could hear — the order itself is already part of the miracle about to come.
  5. Ezekiel 37:5The vision’s first promise: to make the spirit (breath, life) enter the bones, reversing the death described at the start of the chapter.
  6. Ezekiel 37:6It details the physical stages of reconstruction: sinews, flesh, and skin — even before life enters, the body is reassembled piece by piece.
  7. Ezekiel 37:7Ezekiel obeys and the effect is immediate and loud: a noise of bones snapping together, forming complete skeletons across the valley.
  8. Ezekiel 37:8The first stage of the vision is fulfilled — the body formed, with flesh and skin — but the decisive element is still missing: there was no breath in them yet.
  9. Ezekiel 37:9The text itself explains the vision’s meaning shortly after, in verse 11: the bones represent ‘the whole house of Israel,’ without hope, and the breath of life that raises them symbolizes the exiled people coming back to life as a nation — it is not, in its original context, a teaching about individual resurrection after death.
  10. Ezekiel 37:10The second stage is fulfilled: as he prophesies again, the breath enters the bodies and they stand up as a vast army, a complete scene of life restored.
  11. Ezekiel 37:11The text itself explains the meaning of the vision: the bones represent ‘the whole house of Israel,’ the exiled people who felt without hope, as though they were dead and cut off for good.
  12. Ezekiel 37:12The divine interpretation of the vision: opening ‘your graves’ (the exile) and bringing the people back to the land — the resurrection symbolizes the return from exile, not a promise about individual death.
  13. Ezekiel 37:13It repeats the promise of recognition: the very act of bringing the people back would be the proof of who the Lord is.
  14. Ezekiel 37:14It reinforces: God’s spirit within the people and the return to the land are the two parts of the same promise of national restoration.
  15. Ezekiel 37:15The formula that introduces a second symbolic sign in this chapter — now with two pieces of wood, on the same theme of the people’s reunification.
  16. Ezekiel 37:16Joining two pieces of wood, one representing Judah and the other representing Israel, the northern tribes separated since the kingdom’s division centuries before, symbolizes the promise of reuniting the divided people under a single king.
  17. Ezekiel 37:17The sign’s central action: joining the two pieces of wood in the prophet’s own hand, until they form a single object.
  18. Ezekiel 37:18It anticipates the natural question from the people, curious to understand the meaning of the gesture — a device common in the symbolic acts Ezekiel performs throughout the book.
  19. Ezekiel 37:19The sign’s explanation: the two pieces represent the two historically divided kingdoms — Judah in the south and the northern tribes led by Ephraim — being reunited as one.
  20. Ezekiel 37:20A visual detail: the two pieces would remain in view, in the prophet’s hand, before all the people, reinforcing the public nature of this demonstration.
  21. Ezekiel 37:21The promise behind the sign: gathering the children of Israel scattered among the nations and bringing them back to their own land.
  22. Ezekiel 37:22It details the result of the reunification: one people, one king, an end to the division between the two kingdoms that had existed since the time of Solomon.
  23. Ezekiel 37:23A promise of purification: an end to the idolatry and practices that caused the exile, restoring the covenant relationship between the people and God.
  24. Ezekiel 37:24‘David my servant’ and the ‘everlasting covenant of peace’ pick up the same promise from chapter 34, now also tied to a sanctuary that would stand in the middle of the people forever — a theme that returns in the book’s final chapters.
  25. Ezekiel 37:25It details the permanence of the promise: the land given to the ancestors would be inhabited forever by their descendants, with ‘David’ as prince forever.
  26. Ezekiel 37:26It picks up the language of ‘a covenant of peace’ already used in chapter 34, now adding the promise of a permanent sanctuary in the midst of the people.
  27. Ezekiel 37:27God’s presence dwelling among the people seals the covenant relationship — ‘their God… my people,’ a formula repeated at several points in the book.
  28. Ezekiel 37:28The conclusion: the sanctuary’s permanent presence would serve as a witness even to the other nations, showing that Israel had been restored by God.

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