Ezekiel 37:1-14
(588 BC[1], the siege of Jerusalem begins)
(586 BC, the fall of Jerusalem)
(585 BC, Ezekiel and the Dry Bones)
I was young when the battle took place in the valley just over the hill from our fields. We were just beginning to harvest when we saw the armies coming. We fled and hid in a cave. We felt safe, but we could still hear the swords slashing, the trumpets blowing, and the cries of the wounded. When night fell, we stayed where we were. Had the battle ended? Had the victors left? We didn’t know.
During the night, we heard footsteps and wagons, men moving around.
“It may be the losers who survived pulling out,” Father whispered. We huddled farther back in the cave, fearing that someone might find our hiding place. About the middle of the night, everything grew quiet again.
The next morning, we heard no trumpets, just wagons and the bustle around a war camp. The sun was high in the sky when Father ventured out.
“Everyone, stay still. They may just be regrouping.”
Mother tried to grab me as I slipped out to the mouth of the cave. I knew she wouldn’t call out. And I had no intention of following Father. I just wanted to see what I could, which wasn’t much. When I saw Father coming back, I returned to the rest of the family.
“They’re leaving. The Babylonians are leaving. They have gathered up their wounded. Our army left last night, what was left of them. We’ll stay here until nightfall. They should be all gone by then.”
The sounds of wagons and marching faded away as the sun dropped. Father went out again, and I stayed back with the others. I couldn’t see anything anyway.
“They’re all gone. We need to be careful going back to town. It may not be safe there.”
Fortunately, the Babylonians had not tried to enter the village. They were on their way to Jerusalem, to lay siege to the city.
Father and some men from town went back out to the battlefield. Father was very quiet when he returned. After we went to bed, I heard him telling Mother, “I’ve never seen such a sight. So many men scattered all over the valley, most of the already dead. We brought back a few who were still alive, but I don’t know how many of them will make it.”
Father forbade me to go over the hill from our fields. Neither army had carried away their dead. As a boy, I was curious. I wanted to see. After a few days, I managed to sneak away. What I saw, I wished I had obeyed and had stayed away.
The stench of rotting flesh wasn’t the worst of it. The wild animals had torn the bodies and scattered the bones. It wasn’t a pretty sight. I stayed away after that for a long time.
Years later, Ezekiel showed up in our village. He was looking for someone to show him where the battle had taken place. I wasn’t eager, with that memory still in my mind, but I volunteered to take him there.
I showed him the cave where we hid, but he wasn’t interested. He wanted to see the valley of the bones.
We topped the hill and looked down. A recent rain freshened the air, but nothing but the bones remained. Grass had grown up. It didn’t smell like a battle field. The bones were even more scattered than I remembered.
Ezekiel wandered through the valley, looking at the bones. Not knowing what else to do, I followed him. Very little else remained from the battle, although I saw a few corroded pieces of metal shields.
After a while, he stopped, and I heard him mutter, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know if these bones can live.”
I stepped back. Bones like this? They could live again? I didn’t think so.
But then Ezekiel reached out his hand and spoke to the bones. To the bones? I shook my head at his words.
“Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”
I jumped as something moved behind me. I looked, and a leg bone was moving to a hip bone. A foot bone attached itself to the leg bone, and all the toes slid into place. A complete skeleton came together next to me. As I stared wide eyed, skeletons all around me were putting themselves together.
But that wasn’t all. Sinews and muscles and skin formed on the bones. I looked at Ezekiel, and a smile spread on his face from ear to ear. He seemed satisfied, but I was trembling, holding back a scream.
It wasn’t over. He spoke again, this time calling to the winds. “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ”
Now if my feet hadn’t been frozen to the ground, I’d have turned and run, but I couldn’t move. That pile of bones that had become a skeleton and then a dead man — that pile of bones stood up! His eyes were as wide as mine were.
“Where am I?” he asked.
He was a Babylonian, but I didn’t speak enough to explain to him what Ezekiel had done. He looked around and recognized fellow soldiers. One of them, he must have been a captain or something, was talking with Ezekiel. After a few minutes, he called out to his men and they marched off.
I wondered what it would be like when they went back to their families.
For consideration:
1) Ezekiel had a vision, rather than physically walking among the bones. Does this story change the meaning? Would people then have understood it differently?
2) What is the significance of “dry” bones? Would recently dead bones have carried the same message?
3) The Hebrew word רוּחַ, ruach, can be translated as breath or wind or spirit. How would you translate Ezekiel 37:9: Then he said to me, “Prophesy (Speak) to the ruach; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, ruach, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” Does the meaning change if you change the word?
4) What does this story/vision say to us today?
[1] BC (Before Christ) means the numbers go backwards, so that 588 BC is before 586 BC.
