Once more the hand of the Lord is upon the prophet, and he is carried out in the Spirit of the Lord and is set down in the midst of a valley. The valley was full of bones and they were very dry. These dry bones, disjointed and bleached, picture in the vision the national and spiritual condition of the whole house of Israel. There was no life in these bones and all is hopeless as they themselves are concerned. Then the Lord spoke to His prophet, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And the prophet answered, "O Lord God, Thou knowest!" Ezekiel knowing the impossibility that these bones could ever live, puts the question of their living upon the Lord. With Him nothing is impossible. He then is commanded to prophesy: "O ye dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live." And there is to be a complete reconstruction of these dry bones. Sinews and flesh is to cover them and the breath of life is to return. And the prophet speaks the word and there was a noise (literal: voice) and a commotion, bone came to bone, sinews and flesh came into view and skin covered them; but they were still dead, as no breath was in them. Again the prophet is commanded to prophecy, to utter the word: "Thus saith the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." No sooner had the prophet spoken the word as commanded, when suddenly the breath came into them, and they lived and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then the Lord explains the vision, so that we are not left in doubt of what is meant by it. The dry bones are typical of the whole house of Israel; they themselves confess "our bones are dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts." Thus saith the Lord in answer to their despairing confession, what the vision so strikingly foreshadows, "I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel, ... and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land."