The Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel 37 - And the Two Sticks Becoming One

Ezekiel’s Vision of “The Valley of Dry Bones” (AI generated image)

Ezekiel’s vision, in Chaper 37, opens in a valley where hope has dried into dust. Bones lie scattered—silent witnesses to a people who once lived, once breathed, once carried covenant fire. Ezekiel stands among Judah’s exiles in Babylon, yet the word that comes to him stretches far beyond the southern tribes. When Adonai says, “These bones are the whole house of Israel,” He is not speaking of Judah alone. He is speaking of a family torn in two since the days of Rehoboam—Judah in the south, and the Northern Kingdom, Ephraim, carried away by Assyria and scattered like seed across the nations.

Those northern tribes disappeared into the Gentile world. They married into foreign peoples, adopted foreign customs, and over generations lost their identity. They were still Israel by covenant, but they no longer knew their own name. This is why Scripture begins to speak of two groups: those who are “near” and those who are “far off.” Judah—the Jews—remained identifiable, preserving Torah, language, and lineage. They are the “near ones.” But the house of Israel, scattered and absorbed into the nations, became the “far off.”

Isaiah heard God say, “Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near” (Isaiah 57:19). Daniel prayed for “all Israel, near and far, in all the countries where You have driven them” (Daniel 9:7). The prophets knew the distinction. The rabbis knew it too. Rashi affirms that Ezekiel’s bones represent all Israel, including the Ten Tribes. The Targum paraphrases Ezekiel 37 to emphasize that God will gather “the whole house of Israel from among the nations.” The sages taught in Sanhedrin 110b that the Ten Tribes will one day return. They understood that the scattered tribes had become as Gentiles, yet still belonged to Israel’s story.

Ezekiel’s two sticks make this truth visible. One stick bears the name of Judah. The other bears the name of Joseph—the stick of Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom. God commands the prophet to join them into one stick in His hand. The fracture will be healed. The family will be restored. The divided kingdom will become one nation again under the son of David.

Hosea gives voice to the heartbreak of the Northern Kingdom’s scattering. Over them God declares, “I will have no pity” (Lo-Ruchamah) and “You are not My people” (Lo-Ammi) (Hosea 1:6–9). Yet in the same breath, He promises that those once called “not My people” will again be called “children of the living God” (Hosea 2:1, 25). Hosea is not speaking of Judah. He is speaking of the house of Israel—those who would be sown among the nations until they looked no different from the Gentiles around them (just as Joseph looked and acted like an Egyptian and was unrecognizable to his brothers).

The Newer Covenant writings pick up Hosea’s prophecy with prophetic precision. Paul quotes Hosea in Romans 9:25–26, applying it to those who had become “not My people”—the scattered tribes now living as Gentiles. Peter echoes the same in 1 Peter 2:10, writing to believers in the diaspora (I Peter 1:1), who were once “not a people” but now are “God’s people.” The apostles understood that the restoration promised through Hosea was unfolding through Messiah Yeshua. The scattering was not abandonment—it was divine strategy. Through dispersion, the seed of Israel was planted among the nations so that the nations themselves could be gathered into the covenant.

This is why Paul uses Isaiah’s language again: Yeshua came to proclaim shalom “to you who were far off and to those who were near” (Ephesians 2:17). The “near” are Judah. The “far off” are the scattered tribes who became Gentiles—along with the Gentiles who joined themselves to Israel’s God. Through Messiah, both groups are brought near by His blood (Ephesians 2:13). The dividing wall falls, not to erase Israel, but to heal Israel and bring the nations into the restored family.

This is the world into which Paul speaks of “one new man” (Ephesians 2:15). He is not describing a third identity. He is describing Ezekiel’s two sticks made one. He is describing Judah and Ephraim—Jew and Gentile—restored to covenant unity in Messiah. The “one new man” is the resurrected Israel, the reconciled family, the healed nation brought back together under the Davidic Shepherd. When Paul speaks of “Jew and Gentile,” he is speaking the language of the prophets. The Gentiles who come to faith are not replacing Israel—they are joining the restored house of Israel, grafted into the olive tree (Romans 11:17–24), becoming part of the family God promised to resurrect.

Yeshua Himself hints at this when He says, “I have other sheep that are not from this pen; I need to bring them in” (John 10:16, CJB). His mission to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24) echoes the prophetic hope that the scattered tribes would be gathered. Yet the mystery revealed is that the nations, too, are brought into this restored flock. The Shepherd gathers Judah. He gathers Ephraim. And He gathers the nations who call on His name, making them one flock with one Shepherd—exactly as Ezekiel foresaw (Ezekiel 37:24).

Thus the valley of dry bones is not merely a picture of Judah’s return from Babylon. It is the sweeping promise of God to resurrect, reunify, and restore His covenant people—Judah and Ephraim—along with the nations who join themselves to Israel’s Messiah. Ancient Jewish writings saw it as national resurrection. The Newer Covenant reveals the One through whom that resurrection begins. The scattering of the Northern Kingdom was not the end of Israel’s story; it was the means by which God would reach the whole world. And the same Ruach who breathed life into the dry bones is breathing life now into all who return to the Shepherd of Israel—the One who makes the two sticks one in His hand, forming the “one new man,” the restored family of God, the whole house of Israel alive again.

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Blessings,

Leisa