Scripture Verse

He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, Thou knowest. Ezekiel 37:3

Introduction

portrait
Philip Doddridge
(1702–1751)

Words: Phi­lip Dodd­ridge (1702–1751). Pub­lished post­hu­mous­ly in Hymns Found­ed on Va­ri­ous Texts in the Ho­ly Scrip­tures, by Job Or­ton (Shrop­shire, Eng­land: Jo­shua Ed­dowes & John Cot­ton, 1755), num­ber 146: Eze­ki­el’s vi­sion of the dry bones.

Music: Oc­ta­vi­us Jo­seph E. Sweet­ser, 1865 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Sweet­ser (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

Look down, O Lord, with pi­ty­ing eye;
See Ad­am’s race in ru­in lie;
Sin spreads its tro­phies o’er the ground,
And scat­ters slaugh­tered heaps around.

And can these mol­der­ing corps­es live?
And can these per­ished bones re­vive?
That, migh­ty God, to Thee is known;
That won­drous work is all Thine own.

Thy min­is­ters are sent in vain
To pro­phe­sy up­on the slain;
In vain they call, in vain they cry,
’Till Thine al­migh­ty aid is nigh.

But if Thy Spir­it deign to breathe,
Life spreads thro’ all the realms of death;
Dry bones ob­ey the pow­er­ful voice;
They move, they wak­en, they re­joice.

So when Thy trum­pet’s aw­ful sound
Shall shake the heav’ns, and rend the ground,
Dead saints shall from their tombs arise,
And spring to life be­yond the skies.

illustration
The Vision of Ezekiel
Gustave Doré (1832–1883)