‘The hand of Yahweh was on me, and he carried me out in the Spirit of Yahweh and set me down in the midst of a valley (or ‘plain'), and it was full of bones. And he made me pass by around them and behold there were a great many in the open valley, and behold they were very dry.'
Once again Ezekiel experienced a remarkable vision, resulting from ‘the hand of Yahweh' being on him, connected with the Spirit (compare Ezekiel 3:22-23; Ezekiel 8:1; Ezekiel 8:3). He was borne to a battlefield. We can possibly presume that it was one where many Israelites had died, although it may have been simply a visionary battlefield. The valley or plain was full of the remains of skeletons. And the bones were very dry. They represented a totally dead and desolate Israel, without a shred of life in it. It was a valley of hopelessness.