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In the Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon, oath-breakers are cursed so that they are dishonored after death, their bones never coming together. In Ezekiel, the dry bones come together, bone to bone, in a vision that may be a reversal of a similar curse.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
The Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon §§96–97
Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty (SAA 2 6)
Ancient Near East, Assyrian
632 If you should forsake Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, Assurbanipal, the great crown prince designate, (his brothers, [sons by the same mother] as Assurbanipal, the great crown prince designate, and the other sons, the offspring of [Esa]rhaddon, king of Assyria), going to the south or to the north, may iron swords consume him who goes to the south and may iron swords likewise consume him who goes to the north; 636A may they [slaughter] you, your women, your brothers, your sons, and your daughters like a spring lamb and a kid. 637 (Ditto;) just as the noise of (these) doves is persistent, so may you, your women, your sons and your daughters have no rest or sleep and may your bones never come together.
Ezekiel 37:7
Hebrew Bible
1 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and placed me in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones. 2 He made me walk all around among them. I realized there were a great many bones in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said to him, “Sovereign Lord, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and tell them: ‘Dry bones, listen to the Lord’s message. 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: Look, I am about to infuse breath into you and you will live. 6 I will put tendons on you and muscles over you and will cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. There was a sound when I prophesied— I heard a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 As I watched, I saw tendons on them, then muscles appeared, and skin covered over them from above, but there was no breath in them. 9 He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath—prophesy, son of man—and say to the breath: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these corpses so that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as I was commanded, and the breath came into them; they lived and stood on their feet, an extremely great army.
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Notes and References
“... Having already been persuaded by Fensham's argument, I became all the more convinced of his approach after noticing this curse in EST (where it occurs just two columns away from the curse he twice quoted from the treaty): (Ditto;) just as the noise of (these) doves is persistent, so may you, your women, your sons and your daughters have no rest or sleep and may your bones never come together. [...] A closer look at the passage reveals intriguing parallelism between the last line and Ezekiel 37:7b, which reads: There was a noise as I prophesied, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, one bone to another bone. [...] These remarkable similarities reinforce Fensham's basic argument that Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones should be read as a reversal of the widely attested treaty curse, which deprived treaty-violators of a proper burial and instead left their corpses exposed to sun and wild animals. ...”
Davis, Andrew R.
A Near Eastern Treaty Parallel to Ezekiel's Dry Bones
(p. 340–41) Vetus Testamentum 68, 2018
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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