Ezekiel 37:1-4
hand <03027> [hand.]
In this vision, the dry bones aptly represent the ruined and desperate state of both Israel and Judah; and the revivification of these bones signifies their restoration to their own land after their captivity, and also their recovery from their present long dispersion. Although this is the primary and genuine scope of the vision, yet the doctrine of a general resurrection of the dead may justly be inferred from it; for "a simile of the resurrection," says Jerome, after Tertullian and others, "would never have been used to signify the restoration of the people of Israel, unless such a future resurrection had been believed and known; because no one attempts to confirm uncertain things by things which have no existence."
out <03318> [carried.]
valley <01237> [valley. or, champaign.]
great .......... very <03966> [they were.]
bones <06106> [can.]
Sovereign Lord <0136 03069> [O Lord God.]
Prophesy <05012> [Prophesy.]
Dry <03002> [O ye.]
Ezekiel 37:12
prophesy <05012> [Therefore.]
open <06605> [I will open.]
This is a pointed allusion to the resurrection; under which figure Isaiah (ch. 26:9) also describes the restoration of the house of Israel, when he says, "thy dead men shall live;" at which time their bones are said to flourish, (ch. 66:14,) or to be restored to their former strength and vigour; and, in like manner, St. Paul, (Ro 11:15,) expresses their conversion by "life from the dead." In the land of their captivity, they seemed as absolutely deprived of their country as persons committed to the grave are cut off from the land of the living; but when Cyrus issued his proclamation, Jehovah, as it were, opened their graves, and when he stirred up their spirits to embrace the proffered liberty, he put his Spirit within them, that they might live; and their re-establishment in their own land evinced the truth of God in the prediction, and his power in its accomplishment.
bring <0935> [and bring.]
