The Valley of Dry Bones (1 of 2)

In context

Ezekiel’s words turn to Judah’s neighbors, Ammon, Moab, Edom and the Philistines, who mocked or took revenge when Jerusalem fell; to Tyre, which said of Jerusalem, “She is broken”; and to Pharaoh, “the great monster that lies in the middle of his rivers” (Ezekiel 25:1–26:2; 29:3). They are words of judgment, with lands laid waste.

In the twelfth year of the captivity a man who escaped from Jerusalem brings word that the city has fallen, and Ezekiel can speak again (33:21–22). The people come to hear him, but to them he is “a very lovely song”: “they hear your words, but they don’t do them” (33:30–32).

The Lord speaks against the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves and not the sheep, and says, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep,” and, “I will seek that which was lost” (34:2–16), and Jesus says of himself, “the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He will set over them “one shepherd… my servant David,” and he promises, “I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you” (Ezekiel 34:23; 36:26).