Then he said to me …: In verses 11-14 God explains to Ezekiel the meaning of the vision of the dry bones.

For Son of man, see Ezek 37.3.

These bones are the whole house of Israel means the bones represent the whole nation of Israel. New International Reader’s Version says “these bones stand for all the people of Israel.” If it is more natural in their language, translators may turn this clause around by saying “all the people of Israel are like these bones” (similarly Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version). For house of Israel see the comments on 3.1. The word whole shows that God is referring to both the northern and southern kingdoms.

Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off’: God quotes the Israelites. They had become dispirited and were complaining that their nation had been destroyed. For the word Behold, which highlights what they say, see Ezek 37.2. Our bones are dried up means the people feel that the nation is dead like the dry, dead bones. Our hope is lost may be rendered “We’ve lost all hope” (New International Reader’s Version) or “We have no hope left.” We are clean cut off may be translated “We are destroyed” (New Century Version) or “it is the end of us” (Christian Community Bible). It is acceptable to rearrange the order of these clauses of the people’s complaint to make them flow more naturally in the translator’s own language. A model that does this is:

• We are as dry as those dead bones. Our nation has been completely destroyed. We have lost all hope for the future.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .