Yabesh (יָבֵשׁ) means dry, parched, or withered — used of drought-stricken land, withered grass, and famously in Ezekiel 37 of the dry bones. The root encompasses both the physical state of dryness and the figurative state of spiritual desolation. It appears about 60 times in various forms.
Ezekiel 37 is the climax of yabesh in the Old Testament: the valley of dry bones, utterly yabesh, representing the house of Israel in exile — hope cut off, bones dried up (Ezekiel 37:11). God's question — 'Can these bones live?' — is the question of resurrection against all visible evidence. The Spirit (ruach) brings life to what is completely dry. Isaiah 40:7 uses it for human mortality: 'The grass withers [yabesh], the flower fades.' But the contrast in verse 8 — 'the word of our God endures forever' — makes yabesh a foil for divine permanence. God specializes in raising the dry and dead.