2
And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
Ezekiel 37:2
Job 17
1
My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
2
Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
3
Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?
4
For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
5
He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6
He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
7
Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
8
Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
9
The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
10
But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
11
My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
12
They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
13
If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
14
I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou are my mother, and my sister.
15
And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
16
They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
One
A company might have executives setting policy and strategy, engineers designing products, managers handling personnel and others handling various functions. They all do different things -- but if they're doing them with a shared underlying purpose, the company -- and the individuals in it -- will likely be successful. The Lord wants all human society to function in a similar way. We have different skills and individual loves, but if we all share a mutual love -- a love of serving others -- then society will function as one, will be a reflection of heaven and will be a good receptacle for the Lord's love. This can also happen within each of us, as we unify our talents and ideas around a central love. And in an abstract sense, it illustrates how a wide collection of varying ideas can be unified around a shared good intention. That is the kind of love pictured when “one” is used in the Bible, either as a specific number or in the sense of several people or objects “being one.” In more casual references -- when used to identify a specific person or object -- the meaning is relatively literal, and is connected to that person or object.
