What Does Ezekiel 37 Mean

Commentary - Ezekiel 37:4 After skeptically agreeing that YHWH can resuscitate and resurrect the bones, Ezekiel receives an imperative to prophesy to the bones (הִנָּבֵ֖א עַל־הָעֲצָמֹ֣ות), the exiles of Israel. However, there are others who are more skeptical on the identity of the bones, either not elaborating on their identity, or attributing them to slain Israelites in Egypt. Identity of the bones aside, the emphasis here is the word of YHWH that Ezekiel has been commanded to prophesy, a word containing a general thesis (v. 5b), a fourfold explication, and a concluding statement (v. 6).
Commentary - Ezekiel 37:5-6 The second use of ר֣וּחַ in chapter 37 occurs here and is vague in its meaning. It’s use in vv. 5 & 6 are different than its
Until this point in the narrative, ר֣וּחַ had seemed to indicate life-giving breath in a general, physical sense. Here is the first mention of ר֣וּחַ with a definite article (הָר֑וּחַ). In receiving the imperative to prophecy, Ezekiel commands the ר֣וּחַ of life to come from all directions of the earth to fill the valley and fill the bones. The slain corpses deserves some attention, if bones are, indeed, slain corpses, then who might these corpses be in their living? Perhaps these are slain corpses represent the casualties from Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Judah and Jerusalem. If this were the case, then their lack of a proper burial would have been understood because of covenantal retribution and curse; refusing to bury the bodies of those who had failed to meet the covenantal terms would have been culturally acceptable and would have echoed to Deut. 28:25-26 and Jer, 34:17-20. However, Zimmerli would argue that such a representation would be a stretch, “The oracle as a whole is not… referring to the resurrection of those who fell at the time. The allusion is only quite incidental and is not a central element of the image.” While the passage is explicit in that the bones are the house of Israel (v. 11), to see them as a slain people in Judah, Jerusalem, or Egypt seems a stretch as the passage does not explicitly state to be the
11 with a triad of promises in v. 12. YHWH promises to open their graves, raise them from the grave, and bring them into Israel. Graves for lower economic classes, as would have been the people of Israel, would have looked like bodies strewn in shallow holes in the ground. YHWH uses burial language as a literary bridge to establish an exodus-like narrative. From a valley of bones, to graves of the formerly living, to the exodus narrative of YHWH leading his people back into their land. Exodus-like restorative language is common place in many of the restorative oracles of Ezekiel (20:42, 34:13, 36:24). A gloss over the seemingly intrusive עַמִּֽי fails to recognize a key idea in this passage: relational reunion. YWHW’s calling of the house of Israel as עַמִּֽי implies that the crucial deity-nation-land relationship, which had assumingly been nullified by the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile, would be