Ezekiel 37:5

Ezekiel 37:5, in plain English

God promises that He will breathe life—His Spirit—into these bones, and they will live again.

Why it's here

The word for 'breath' here is the same word for 'spirit' in Hebrew—ruach. It's the same word used when God breathed life into Adam at creation. God isn't just repairing broken things; He's performing a new creation.

Who's speaking

God's direct speech, spoken through Ezekiel's prophecy

Where it sits in the story

This connects back to creation and forward to resurrection. The same God who gave Adam life in the garden will give life to dead bones. It's a pattern that runs through all of Scripture—death isn't the final word; God's power to create and restore is.

The scholarly reading

God promises to restore breath (ruach) to the bones, which will restore them to life—beginning the sequence of resurrection with the reanimating spirit-principle.

Language and setting

Ruach carries multilayered meaning in Hebrew: wind, breath, spirit, and the animating divine presence. In exile theology, Israel's ruach has departed; this promise reverses that spiritual depletion. Exilic communities would have understood this as restoration of divine presence (the shekinah's return).

Voice

The LORD, speaking through Ezekiel's prophetic utterance.

Significance

This echoes the creation of Adam in Genesis 2:7, where God breathes nephesh chayah (living soul) into formed dust. Ezekiel's vision recapitulates creation within history—suggesting that redemption follows creation's grammar. This resonates through Christian theology in Paul's 'new creation' language (2 Corinthians 5:17).

3Then He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones come to life?”

4And He said to me, “Prophesy concerning these bones and tell them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!

5This is what the Lord GOD says to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you will come to life.

6I will attach tendons to you and make flesh grow upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath within you so that you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”

7So I prophesied as I had been commanded. And as I prophesied, there was suddenly a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone.

Read all of Ezekiel 37 — A valley of bones. Can they live? God breathes, and the impossible happens. The deadest things God's prophet has ever seen come back to life.