As if to make sure that Ezekiel felt the full impact of the vision, Jehovah ordered the prophet to “pass all around” those widely scattered bones. As Ezekiel walked on the valley plain, two things about the bones especially stood out to him: their number and their condition. “There were very many,” he observed, and “they were very dry.”

Also recall that Ezekiel saw not just bones but “very dry” bones, which indicated that their deathlike condition continued for a long time. And, indeed, for Israel and Judah combined, it lasted over 200 years, from 740 to 537 B.C.E.​—Jer. 50:33.

9. What similarities are there between the experiences of ancient natural Israel and those of “the Israel of God”?

⁹ Restoration prophecies concerning Israel, such as the ones spoken by Ezekiel, have a larger fulfillment. (Acts 3:21) Just as the ancient nation of natural Israel was “killed” and remained symbolically dead for a considerable time, so “the Israel of God,” the anointed Christian congregation, was killed symbolically and experienced deathlike captivity for a long time. (Gal. 6:16) In fact, the captivity of the anointed congregation as a whole continued for so long that their spiritual condition could well be compared to that of bones that “were very dry.” (Ezek. 37:2) As explained in the preceding chapter, the captivity of the anointed Christian congregation began in the second century C.E. and lasted for many centuries, just as Jesus had indicated in his Kingdom illustration of the wheat and the weeds.​—Matt. 13:24-30.