What is the Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37)?

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

This unusual and fascinating vision about God, through Ezekiel, bringing an army of skeletal remains back to life has been fodder for much scholarly debate. While some focus on the resurrection act, claiming it teaches about the future resurrection, the passage explains that it’s a picture of Israel's restoration. The bones represent the house of Israel and her hopeless state (Ezekiel 37:11). But the LORD promises to intervene and return them to their land (Ezekiel 37:12), so that they will know He is their God (Ezekiel 37:13). Ezekiel was written shortly before Judah, the final remaining Israelites still in the Promised Land, were taken into captivity (2 Kings 25:1–11). After 70 years, God did, indeed, bring them back into the land (Ezra 1:1–4; cf. Daniel 9). However, the “house of Israel” was not fully restored; this prophecy has not been completed. The passage ends with God saying that He will put His Spirit in Israel (Ezekiel 37:14), a promise He had previously said included giving them new hearts (Ezekiel 36:26–27). This is thus best understood as still a future prophecy about the final restoration of Israel (Romans 11:25–27).

FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT

• The immediate context of the vision is the impending Babylonian exile. Jeremiah, Ezekiel’s contemporary, prophesied that Judah, the last remaining Israelites still in the Promised Land, would be captured for 70 years (Jeremiah 29:10). Second Kings 25:1–11 records that event. God used Ezekiel to show what the future held for Israel, with some of his prophecies and visions being far in the future. The Valley of the Dry Bones appears to be one such vision.
• In it, Ezekiel sees a valley filled with dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1–2). Being “dry” highlights how long and old these bones are. There’s no semblance of life left. God told Ezekiel to prophesy over them. When he did, the bones came to life, and their bodies regrew on them until a great army was standing before him (Ezekiel 37:4–10).
• Given this striking image, scholars have explained it in several ways. Some see this vision as Old Testament proof of the resurrection, while others see it as representing the church.
• However, God explains the vision, making it best to limit one’s interpretations to what He said. He called the bones “the whole house of Israel” (Ezekiel 37:11a). They were dry because their hope had perished (Ezekiel 37:11b), and they were “cut off” from God and His promises (Ezekiel 37:11c).
• But God said there was still hope: “Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel” (Ezekiel 37:12). God would restore Israel to the land. Then “you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people” (v 13).
• After the seventy-year captivity, God did, indeed, release His people from captivity as promised (Ezra 1:1–4; cf. Daniel 9). They returned to the land, partially fulfilling this prophecy. However, the “house of Israel” was never truly restored. They became a freed people, but still under the authority of other nations (cf. Nehemiah 9:36–37). Additionally, only Judah returned to the land. The rest of Israel remained in exile.
• God ended His explanation of the Valley of Bones, saying, “I 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; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD” (Ezekiel 37:14). He said something similar a chapter earlier: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:26–27). The Valley of the Dry Bones vision refers to that restoration: when God brings all of Israel back into the land, restores her as a nation, and spiritually saves the people.

FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

• In Romans 11, based on various Old Testament prophecies, Paul explained that Israel’s current, partially hardened state is only temporary. Speaking to Gentile believers, he said, “Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob’; ‘and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins’” (Romans 11:25–27).

IMPLICATIONS FOR TODAY

God is a God who keeps His promises. Long before Israel, He promised Abraham the land as an eternal possession (Genesis 17:7–8). The Valley of Dry Bones comes after Israel is seemingly losing the land for its persistent sin, yet in it God reiterates his promise that He will restore Israel.

There have been many historical nations, such as the Philistines and the Canaanites, but they all ceased to exist. And yet, the Jewish people, currently in the nation of Israel, continue to exist. Scripture doesn’t say that the nation of Israel as it exists today is the final kingdom—indeed, in many ways it’s as liberal and sinful as the other nations. However, it exemplifies that what God has said is true: He will keep His people.

We can therefore trust that when God says He will give them a new heart and place His Spirit in them, there is a day coming when Israel will be a nation that is truly filled with God’s people, Israelis gathered from around the world, gathered together. It will also be there that Jesus descends on earth (Zechariah 14:4) and reigns and rules the other nations (Ezekiel 37:24–25; Zechariah 14:9).

As believers, we desire and pray that God will fulfill His promise. That their dead, dry bones will be brought to life by His Spirit, so Israel will finally know that the LORD is their God, and so we will see His faithfulness!

UNDERSTAND

• The dry bones represent Israel in her hopeless, exiled state.
• Israel’s return from Babylon was only a partial fulfillment of the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones.
• God promised a future national and spiritual restoration of Israel.

REFLECT

• How does the fact that God can bring hope into a hopeless situation affect your relationship with God?
• How can God’s fulfilled promises strengthen your patience and trust as you wait for the promises that have not yet been fulfilled?
• While this vision is not primarily about resurrection, how does it remind you that God raises the dead, and in what ways does it encourage you that life continues after death?

ENGAGE

• How does God's interpretation of the vision establish a hermeneutical principle for handling symbolic passages, and what does it reveal about the importance of allowing context and Scripture to guide interpretation?
• What does God’s transformation of Israel from a hopeless, scattered people into a restored nation reveal about His power to fulfill promises that seem impossible?
• How does the connection between Ezekiel 37 and Romans 11:25–27 deepen your understanding of God’s future purposes for Israel, and how should that shape the way Christians pray for and view Israel?