has been interpreted for him by an explicit indentification with the house of Israel (v 11*), the command comes to him to speak to Israel and make her a prophetic promise. The image of the bone-strewn field is replaced in this proclamation by the image of the graves from which Israel is to be awakened in the repatriation to her own land. The two main sections, vv 1–10* and vv 11–14*, thus stand in a relationship of image and interpretation, where the interpretation contains at the same time