As part of the Second Temple-period response to the question of what expectations for restoration should be, 4Q385 engages the dry bones vision, but also alters its meaning by introducing new materials to Ezekiel’s vision. It achieves this change through the use of language missing not only from Ezek 37:1–14, but from all of Ezekiel’s restoration prophecies, enlisting the text from Ezek 37 both to support its own ideology and to address the questions of when and how restoration will be realized.
Using the portrayal of Israel’s restoration in 4Q385 as its focus, this article explored how additions to Ezek 37 in PsEzek are utilized to create a consolatory message. These additions share a common denominator: not only are the terms of redemption used by 4Q385 absent from Ezek 37; they are also conspicuously absent from Ezekiel’s restoration prophecies. Its author underscores his message by creating a cluster of allusions to Ezek 37:1–14, an authoritative text for the future restoration of the people, while at the same time introducing changes that transform Ezekiel’s “dim view of restoration” into a more optimistic vision that includes divine love, benevolence, and blessing for his people. 4Q385 thus not only addresses the question of when the restoration prophesied by Ezekiel will take place; it provides a more optimistic picture of this restoration. The comparison between 4Q385 and the book of Ezekiel as a whole emphasizes this underlying theme, overlooked in previous scholarship, that unites all of the corrections and changes that distinguish this text from the biblical version.

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