Ezekiel 37:1

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,

Three stages in Israel's revival present themselves to the prophet's eye:

(1) The new awakening of the people, the resurrection of the dead (Ezekiel 37:1).

(2) The re-union of the formerly hostile members of the community, whose contentions had affected the whole (Ezekiel 37:15).

(3) The community thus restored is strong enough to withstand the assault of Gog, etc. (Ezekiel 38:1; Ezekiel 39:1.) (Ewald.)

Carried ... in the Spirit. The matters transacted, therefore, were not literal, but in vision. The valley - probably "the plain" by the Chebar (); the valley represents Mesopotamia, the scene of Israel's sojourn in her state of national deadness.