Bible Strands
Ezekiel 37:2
He led me all around among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, and indeed, they were very dry.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Ezekiel narrates while God leads him through a valley filled with bones, immediately after being placed there by the Spirit. The words — סָבִיב (sa.Viv) = "all around" and הִנֵּה (hi.Neh) = "there!" mark the exhaustive scope and sudden visual revelation of the scene. The thread — The dry bones motif reappears in Ezekiel 37:11 when God identifies them as the house of Israel, and scattered bones appear in Psalms 141:7 as a metaphor for despair. Why it lands — The text records a vision of complete desolation before posing a question about restoration, requiring the reader to acknowledge total hopelessness before considering divine intervention.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
Cross-references
- Psalms 141:7 As when one plows and breaks up the soil, so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of Sheol.
- Ezekiel 37:11 Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’
- Deuteronomy 11:30 Are not these mountains across the Jordan, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal near the Oak of Moreh?