Ezekiel 32:17
It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel on the fifteenth day of the month in the twelfth year, and the verse records that date and sets the prophetic message that follows. It opens a prophecy against a foreign nation, belonging to the group of prophecies in Ezekiel 25-32. That prophecy concerns Egypt and the fate of Pharaoh and his army.
It concerns them after they were slaughtered in battle by the king of Babylon. The prophecy places Pharaoh and his slain army as gone down together into sheol, hades, the grave in the nether or lower parts of the earth. That sheol is full of graves and the dead and is contrasted with the land of the living.
The slain are pictured as buried indiscriminately together in pits, friend and foe alike. They go down with their weapons of war with their swords laid under their heads. The strong among the mighty speak to Pharaoh out of the midst of sheol as he enters therein. Pharaoh lying among the slain multitudes of his enemies is comforted at the sight and is put to shame.
None of this literally happens in sheol. The dead there are unconscious, silent, without work or knowledge or wisdom, in darkness, silence, and death. They cannot literally converse together, feel comfort or shame, or lie with swords beneath their heads.
The speaking and acting of the dead is figurative personification used to set forth truth and bring it forcibly to bear on the minds of the living. The dead are represented as alive and speaking in keeping with the facts of their cases. It is the same device as the overthrown kings rising from thrones in the earth to mock the king of Babylon. It is the same as Rachel weeping with voice and tears nearly two thousand years after her death. It is the same as the rich man speaking in hades in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.
The speech of the dead therefore does not prove consciousness in death. The rich man speaking in hades can likewise be parable and not proof that the dead are conscious. God can speak of what is not yet present as though it were because it is certain in his purpose. In this sense the dead are alive to him because they will live again.