well in Sheol, the abode of the shades.
(3) Chapters 33 to 39 contain messages of comfort and promise to Ezekiel's
fellow-exiles in Babylonia and in the distant lands of the dispersion.
They are dated between the years 586 and 570 B.C. (4) Chapters 40 to 48
present Ezekiel's plan for the restored temple and service and for the
redistribution of the territory of Canaan, and his belief that Judah's
fertility would be miraculously increased. This plan is definitely dated
in the year 572 B.C., two years before the prophet's death.

V. The Resurrection of the Dead Nation. Ezekiel dealt with the problems
of his fellow-exiles concretely and from a point of view which they could
readily understand. He fully realized that if the faith of the people was
to be saved in this crisis a definite hope, expressed in objective
imagery, must be set before them. With the same inspired insight that had
prompted Jeremiah to purchase his family estate in the hour of Jerusalem's
downfall, Ezekiel saw that Jehovah would yet restore his people, if they
would but respond to the demands of this crisis. His message was,
therefore, one of hope and promise. In the memorable chapter in which he
pictures a valley filled with dry bones, he aimed to inspire their faith
by declaring that Jehovah was not only able but would surely gather
together the dismembered parts of the nation and impart to it new life and
activity. The prophet was clearly speaking of national rather than of
individual resurrection. Like Jeremiah, he anticipated that the tribes of
the north and south would again be united, as in the days of David, and
that over them a scion of the Davidic house would rule as Jehovah's
representative. He also assured them that Jehovah would come again to
dwell in the midst of his purified and restored people.

VI. The Divine Shepherd. In the thirty-fourth chapter Ezekiel deals with
the same theme under a different figure. First he traces the cause of the
exile to the inefficiency and greed and oppression of the earlier
shepherds, the rulers like Jehoiakim, who had scattered rather than
gathered and led the people intrusted to them. Now Jehovah himself, the
great Shepherd of the People, will arise and gather his flock, and lead
them back to their home and give them a rich pasture. Over them he will
appoint a descendant of David, but this prince shall be shorn of his
ancient kingly power.

Ezekiel also presents in his characteristic, symbolic form the p