Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 37:11
Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
11. The whole house of Israel ] viz. Judah and Ephraim.
our hope is lost ] Those who speak are the living members of the nation, and it is of the nationality that they speak. The destruction and dissolution of the nation appeared to them final. It could no more be revived than the dry bones could be made to live. This feeling often appears in exile writings, e.g. Isaiah 40-56 (Isa 49:14 &c.) cf. the singular struggling against the idea, Lam 3:20 seq.
for our parts ] A rendering of the ethical dat., which merely gives vividness to the words “we are cut off,” or expresses the feeling of those who speak by reflecting the action back upon the subject. The term “cut off” (otherwise uncommon) is used also of the servant of the Lord, Isa 53:8.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
We are cut off for our parts – That is, as for us, we are cut off. The people had fallen into despair.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Eze 37:11-13
Therefore prophesy and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God; behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
Despair denounced and grace glorified
I. A true word: They say, our bones are dried.
1. Observe, first, that they describe themselves as dead, as dried, and as divided. These people spoke of their bones, and therefore conceived of themselves as dead; and so the sinner may without, exaggeration conceive of himself as devoid of spiritual life. He knows not the life of God, for he is dead in trespasses and sins. They were divided too. These Israelites were scattered abroad in every place; and perhaps you, dear friend, feel that, as Hosea says, your heart is divided, and you are found wanting. Perhaps you go further with the figure, and seem to be dried, sapless, useless, hopeless. This is a very sad description of a mans soul, and yet how many of us have had to subscribe to it for ourselves. It is just what we felt ourselves to be while we were without God, and without hope; and yet the Spirit of God was convincing us of our guilt.
2. Further, these bones could by no means raise themselves. There was no trace of moisture left upon them; they could not give themselves life or motion; it were a fools hope to look for Such a thing. Is that the dreary fact which forces itself upon you? Do not try to forget it. You are discovering the truth. In you there is no spiritual power to stir towards God until His Spirit moves towards you.
3. There seemed to be before these bones no prospect but the fire. Do you begin to feel in your own conscience the first burnings of the fire which never shall be quenched? Ah, whatever may be your gloomy apprehensions they are none too gloomy.
4. Moreover, these people felt that they were cut off from healing agencies. They say, We are cut off for our parts; that is, each bone is cut off from its fellow, and the whole thing is cut off as to its parts from every hope and comfort. Happy they who have been delivered from this wretched state; but I had almost said, happy they who are experiencing it, for those who feel their sinfulness are on the road to better things. Brother, I hope your extremity will be Gods opportunity. When your bones are dried then will God come in as the resurrection and the life and make these dry bones live.
5. It seemed to these poor people as if they were quite given over, for when bones are cast out in the field and left to be bleached by the wind and the sun, when nobody gives them burial, but there they lie, the refuse of the charnel house, then they are according to all likelihood left for destruction. Apart from Christ, we are cast off: apart from Christ, God cannot look upon us except in anger: apart from the atoning blood our sins protest against the entrance of mercy, and there we lie self-condemned and helpless, abandoned in our own judgment to condemnation swift and sure.
II. Here is an ill word in the text: Our hope is lost. It is a good thing if our false hopes are lost; but true hope is still to be had. They said of old in the Latin, Dum spiro spero, while I breathe I hope; and I turn the proverb over, and say, Dum spero spiro–while I hope I breathe. To render the sentences rather freely will suit me well: While I live I hope, and while I hope I live. Despair, which is the minds declaration that there is no hope, is not so much a sickness of the understanding as a sin of the soul. No man has a right to despair; no man can be right while he is despairing.
1. Despair is a high insult to God; it casts dishonour upon His chief attributes.
(1) It is most derogatory to the truth of God. If a man says, I cannot be saved, he contradicts the Divine voice, Look unto Me, and be ye saved.
(2) He that despairs insults Gods power. He doth in effect tell the Lord that He pretends to a power which He does not possess.
(3) But despair abundantly casts dishonour upon Gods mercy. The Lord glories in His power to save, and He has plainly declared that He will save all those who confess their sins and put their trust in Him; and do we doubt Him?
2. Mark you, while it does this, which is bad enough, despair brings out the devil and Crowns him in Christs stead. Despair says to Satan, Thou art victorious over the mercy of God; thou hast conquered Christ Himself.
3. This heinous sin of despair tramples on the blood of Christ. Christ has died and shed His blood, and we know that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. We have Gods Word for it; yet here is a man who says, It cannot cleanse me from my sin.
4. Despair has something in it of sinning against the Holy Ghost; for the Holy Spirit brings you rich cordials in the promises of God, which will raise your spirits and will restore you from death; and what do you do with them? You take them and dash them against the wall; as if this almighty medicine, devised by infinite wisdom, were the deceitful nostrum of a quack, and you could not receive it.
5. When a man gives way to despair, there comes upon him usually a habit of wrangling against God and His truth. Sometimes the despairing one gets into such a nasty, ugly temper against everything that comes to him from the Bible and from the ministers of God that you begin to think that he must be half mad. So perhaps he is, but it is not a madness that saves him from responsibility; it is a madness which will be laid to his charge in the great day of account, because it is self-inflicted and wilfully persisted in.
6. Worse than this, despair makes a man ready for any sin, for there are many that say, I can never go to heaven, therefore I will take a good swing here, and get what pleasure I can while it is within reach.
7. Let me say further, despair degrades a man, degrades him below the brute beast; for brutes do not despair. You think worse of God than your dog thinks of you. Instead of crouching to His feet, as your poor dog does to you, to try and get a gracious word, you growl at the great Lord–It is of no use for me to be humble: there is no hope.
8. Oh, this despair–avoid it, I pray you, as you would avoid death itself, for it will render all means of grace useless to you. If ye will not believe, neither shall ye be established.
9. Despair, too, is certainly vain and wicked, because it has no Scripture whatever to support it.
III. A gracious word.
1. God meets us upon our own ground, and takes us up where we are. They said, We are as dried bones. Yes, says God, and I will quicken you; but the Lord even goes beyond anything which they have felt or said, for they did not say they were buried. No, they were as bones scattered in the open valley, unburied; but the Lord knows they are worse than they think they are; and so He goes further in mercy than they thought they had gone in misery. He says, I will open your graves, and that looks as if they were finally laid in the sepulchre; but the Lord adds, and cause you to come up out of your graves. Oh, the mercy of the Lord! There is no bound to it.
2. Now, observe how the Word brings comfort by introducing another actor upon the scene. You are like a dried bone, good for nothing, and able for nothing; but the Lord comes in Himself, and He says, I will, I will. Oh, that grand I will!
3. But recollect that God comforts us here by depicting the completeness of His working.
4. Lastly, notice the feeling which is produced by it. Ah, what a feeling a man has that there is a God when God has saved him; when he begins to dance for very joy of heart because he is fully forgiven, then he knows Jehovah is God; when his heart feels restful, and full of peace, when he can say, God is mine, Christ is mine, heaven is mine, he does not need evidences of the existence of God, or arguments to prove the power of God. He carries a demonstration of the truth within his own heart, and tells of it to others with tearful eyes. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Soul resurrection
I. Soul resurrection is a matter of individual responsibility. Man has no choice in the question of his bodily resurrection. He can do nothing towards hastening or delaying it, preventing or effecting it. Not so with the soul. Its moral condition is dependent upon itself. Arise from the dead, is the voice of eternal justice as well as of redemptive mercy.
II. Soul resurrection is a good in itself. It is the prisoner leaving the dungeon and his chains, and going forth a pardoned and reformed man, in the full play of his freedom, to enjoy with a grateful heart the blessings of life, and to discharge with a right spirit the duties of his sphere. It is the diseased man, leaving the dark chamber of suffering, and going forth, with renovated health and invigorated frame, into the fields of nature, in the opening spring, to breathe that new breath from God that is quickening all nature into life.
III. Soul resurrection is the grand end of all Gods dealings with men. In every event of Providence, in every page of history, in every verse of the Bible, in every dictate of reason, in every throb of conscience, in every sorrow, and in every joy, His voice to the soul is this, Arise from the dead:–Break through thy grave of carnalities, prejudices, corrupt habits, into the life of truth and love.
IV. Soul resurrection involves the highest agency of God. The Divine power, which will be employed to call up at last the teeming myriads of the buried dead, is nothing in grandeur, compared with that Divine energy which will be put forth to wake the dead soul to life. In the former case, the mere fiat or volition will do it. God has only to will it and it is done. But far more than this is employed on His part to raise the soul. For this purpose He has to bow the heavens and come down, assume our nature, and in that nature reason out to us the arguments of His almighty love.
V. Soul resurrection is the only pledge of a glorious bodily resurrection. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. These bones are the whole house of Israel] That is, their state is represented by these bones; and their restoration to their own land is represented by the revivification of these bones.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The whole house; the hieroglyphic or emblem of the house of Israel.
They say; think, discourse, and conclude.
Our bones are dried; their state as hopeless, as far from recovery, as dried bones scattered abroad, and, undistinguished, heaped up, are from life.
Our hope is lost; the hope, not that false prophets gave us, but that the true prophets proposed to us, is utterly lost, and we are out of all expectation of a recovery.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. Our bones are dried (Ps141:7), explained by “our hope is lost” (Isa49:14); our national state is as hopeless of resuscitation, asmarrowless bones are of reanimation.
cut off for our partsthatis, so far as we are concerned. There is nothing in us to give hope,like a withered branch “cut off” from a tree, or a limbfrom the body.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then he said unto me, son of man,…. Here follow the explication and application of the above vision:
these bones are the whole house of Israel; an emblem of them, of their state and condition in the Babylonish captivity, and of them in their present state; and of the whole Israel of God, while in a state of unregeneracy: this phrase takes in the ten tribes, as well as the two tribes of Benjamin and Judah, which returned from Babylon; and shows that respect is had to something more than that restoration barely:
behold, they say, our bones are dried; the house of Israel say we are like dry bones indeed; we have no spirit, nor strength, nor courage, nor life in us:
and our hope is lost; of being delivered from the present captivity; or of the Messiah’s coming; or of ever enjoying their own land, and of the promises of those things made unto them:
we are cut off for our parts; from the land of Israel, and have no hope of possessing it again, whatever others have; indeed they are cut off from the olive tree, and are cut down like a tree, both as to their civil and church state. The Targum is,
“and we are perished;”
it is all over with us; we are lost and undone; all the expressions show the desperate and despairing condition they were in.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
THE PARABLE OF UNBURIED BONES
Eze 37:11-14
IN the New Testament we have a few instances of a parable, first given by our Lord, and then interpreted by its Author. Most marked among these is the parable of the Sower, spoken in the thirteenth of Matthew, Mat 13:1-9, and interpreted in the same chapter, Mat 13:18-23.
In the Old Testament the highly symbolizing figures, often employed by the Prophets, are left for our interpretation; and while they are commonly clear, in intent, if studied in connection with the context and in the light of history of the times, we have in this instance of the unburied bodies, an explanation!
The same Prophet who gave us the parable of the unburied bodies in Eze 37:1-10 explains the vision in Eze 37:11-14. Such authoritative explanation always adds assurance in understanding. For instance, in the Book of Daniel, to which we shall come when we have completed our studies in Ezekiel, we have a marvelous dream on the part of Nebuchadnezzar, and a highly interesting interpretation of it on the part of Daniel, both recorded in the second chapter of the Book. The better students of the Bible have long been practically agreed as to the historical application of that dream and its interpretation.
But when one has reached the eighth chapter of the Book of Daniel, Daniel himself, in the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar, experiences a vision involving the conflict of the ram and a he-goat; he then tells us how Gabriel came and interpreted for him that visionthe ram having the two horns as referring to the kings of Media and Persia and the rough goat to the king of Greece we have not merely a rational interpretation, but a Divinely inspired one.
So, in the study of this morning, the Ezekiel vision to which we gave ourselves a week since is now interpreted for Ezekiel himself, and through him for us, by the same Lord who carried [him] out in the Spirit * * and [sat him] down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones.
In the application, then, of this vision we are not speculating; we are following the lines of inspiration instead.
We therefore invite you to consider with us The Unburied Dead, The Open Graves, and The Mighty God.
THE UNBURIED DEAD
Then He said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole House of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. (Eze 37:11).
The bone-dream symbolized Israels condition. This is a pathetic confession on the part of Israel. It is not Gods speech to them; but it is His quotation from their lips. Men are always living in extremes. In the early part of Ezekiel, Israel is boastful, impenitent children, stiff-necked, unwilling even to hear what God has to say. And when, as from day to day, the Prophet brought fresh signs of their failures before them, they repudiated his suggestion; even their priests * * put no difference between the holy and profane, between the unclean and the clean; and their prophets daubed the people with untempered morter seeing vanity, and * * lies, while her people used oppression and vexed the poor and needy. Pride ruled their wills, determined their ways and works, and often found expression in contemptuous speech.
But now they swing suddenly to the opposite extreme. They say, Our bones are dried, there is no hope; we are a doomed company! Possibly the second state is better than the first.
John McNeill, in his series of sermons, Volume 3, speaking to this subject, says:
Is there not an optimism abroad which is too tranquil, and sunshiny, and hopeful, simply because it has never gone through London, North and South and East and West? It has never dared to face the dismal, damning facts of the situation as they actually are. Therefore it sings its little song; therefore it writes cheery little articles; and therefore, altogether, its prophesying is so weak. It is not grounded and founded upon actual knowledge. What we need is to be brave enough and strong enough in the Lord, and in the power of His might, to walk about our Zion; to go on that dismal round on which Ezekiel went; and on which Nehemiah went, when he came back from his captivity, and saw, not in vision, but in reality, what this portrayswhen he went by night on stumbling steed, with sobbing heart, by the burnt gateways and the broken down walls, and all the wreck and desolation of what had been fair Jerusalem.
The calamity howler has never proven himself a competent worker; the man who forever sounds the note of disappointment and despair fails to inspire his fellows. But on the other hand, there come times when hard facts should be harshly voiced, when a frank confession of failure is good for the soul, when, paradoxical as it may sound, lost hopes lay the foundation for hope itself.
It was so with Israel. They had to come into the valley before they could appreciate the mountain; they had to see themselves symbolized in these dead and dried bones before they could desire life in excelsis. They had to realize the meaning of depression before they could appreciate the richness of their own land and the sweetness of their family fellowship.
A. W. Archibald in The Trend of the Centuries believes that this condition, typified by the valley of dry bones, became, under God, the ground work for coming glory, the impetus of the Jewish Christian movement.
He says: The glory of the chosen people had passed, and they were scattered everywhere. Every important city contained a synagogue. Those therefore furnished points of contact, centers of Christianity, which was of Judaic originfor salvation is of the Jews and he quotes Uhlhorn, in his Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism as saying in referring to the advantage arising from the Jewish dispersion, that the Gospel thus found channels everywhere, a net-work of canals, extending over the whole Roman empire, and so was able to diffuse itself rapidly in every direction.
The darkest day, then, is not always the worst day. It is a day in which the sun is appreciated and the prayers for its shining are likely to be put up. The valley of death gives a new meaning to the mountain-heights of life; the dispersion emphasizes afresh the joy of fellowship with ones own. The man who can cry, God be merciful to me a sinned is not far from the Kingdom.
The death of Jaims daughter, the mourning in the house of the widow of Nain, the brokenhearted of Bethanythese bleak, black experiences brought in every case their blessingeven the Lord Himself.
O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself!
But that is not the end. There is a sentence that follows, and that sentence changes despair to hope, But in Me is thine help! (Hos 13:9).
They faced their dead and hopeless estate!
Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
In other words, they are awakened at last to their true condition; and strange to say, that speech, made nearly three thousand years ago, is more true today than when it was originally uttered.
An article, published in the London papers a year ago, and republished by the Chicago Tribune, declared that the Jewish race in Russia was dying under the creed of Lenin, and showed how that was coming to pass in consequence of a combination of circumstances.
First of all, The exercise of even the Jewish faith has been suppressed and the God of the Jews denied their worship. The Jewish religion has always been essential to the Jewish race.
The same article showed how the racial solidarity was being rapidly undermined. Under Bolshevic rule against religion and in favor of interracial marriage, the Russian black Jew was selecting the blond Russian Gentile as a wife, and so the entire Jewish system is breaking as never before in any country. Bolshevism has marked progress in Palestine itself since the close of the last war, and many of the pledges that were made to the Jew in connection with the surrender of Jerusalem are failing to be kept.
As the Prophetic News said sometime since, The Arab and the Bolshevist will not permit Israel to progress in her own land without oppression and opposition!
The Jewish apostasy from the faith is fast putting them into the fellowship of atheism itself; and that religious apostasy which is characterizing and cursing the entire world, is having, in Jewry, most fertile soil for its growth; and today some of the most bitter opponents of God to be found on the earth are young Jews.
From a spiritual standpoint this confession is just approaching its fulfilment; they are spiritually dead, their hopes are gone, they are cut off from God. But, while it is more true of them today than when it was uttered 2700 years ago, it is not the language of their mouths now. If it were, there would be hope; for it is as true for the Jew as for the Gentile, when he confesses his sin, God is faithful and just to forgive him his sin and to cleanse him from all unrighteousness.
But neither confession nor contrition characterizes this nation at this time; nor will it in this age.
Jewish missions are the most hopeless of all Christian enterprises. For the amount invested they bring the least returns; and even among the few professions from that source, fewer still prove themselves sincere. The Hebrew Christian Alliance in America has had to be formed to save the entire movement for Christianizing Jews, from disaster. So many Hebrew frauds and cheats, are traveling the country over, serving Christ for cash only, making a pretense of Christianity in the sole interest of financial results. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; thy bones are dry; thy hope is gone! Thy dispersion is the positive result of thine unfaithfulness.
For the Jews this age holds little hope. Truly they are cut off. On that day when they cried concerning the Christ, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! and when they affirmed, His Blood be on us, they rejected their own Messiah and took the consequences, and those consequences will continue until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
There is not a single moral and religious interest that the Jew of this day does not bitterly oppose. The Bible has gone from the public schools largely at the behest of the Jew, and the consequence is, our own blessed America, whose progress is due more to its Christianity than to all other causes combined, is rapidly turning criminal.
Paul, who was himself a Jew, when he saw the envy with which the Jews looked upon the multitudes who had come to hear the Gospel preached, and listened to their rabid language against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming, said,
It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles (Act 13:46).
And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
The present condition, therefore, of the Jew is spiritual dearth, darker than the day when Ezekiel quoted these words from Israels lips, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
THE OPEN GRAVE
God makes to these unburied ones an unconditional promise.
Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O My people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel (Eze 37:12).
The biblical doctrine of election has never been popular. Men are not willing that God should be arbitrary and unconditional; and yet, reason itself demands such characteristics of one who is worthy to be a God at all. Jehovah is no little god who must be conditioned by men, and must speak in accordance with their wills or wiles; and He has never done so. From the day when He elected Abraham to His grace, He has made to his people unconditional promises. Such was His first pledge to this Father of all Jewry; for the Lord said unto Abram:
Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy fathers house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed (Gen 12:1-3).
God did not consult Abraham as to whether he was ready to leave his fathers house or not. He commanded him to go. God did not ask him whether he would prefer to live in some remote section of his country, or in another. He appointed the land instead. And God no more conditioned His promise than He did His command. They were both unconditionedGet thee out and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.
That is God! There is not a single promise that God has made to Israel that He has not kept, save those that He will yet fulfil.
Israels disobedience has grieved God and brought upon her disaster, distress, dispersion, persecution and hatred; but while their course has doubtless delayed the Divine plan and the purposes of grace toward them, it has not destroyed either. God has neither changed His mind nor repudiated His pledge.
Paul discussed this matter in his Letter to the Romans, declaring that his
brethren, * * being ignorant of Gods righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God (Rom 10:3).
And he quotes from Isaiah, the Word of the Lord to Israel,
All day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people (Rom 10:21).
And then he raised the question,
Hath God cast away His people?
And answered it,
God forbid. * * God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew (Rom 11:1-2).
Rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy (Rom 11:11).
Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? (Rom 11:12).
For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? (Rom 11:15).
That is the exact figure of Ezekiel; and that is the eternal promise and plan of a merciful God life from the dead.
Henry Grattan Guinness, in his History Unveiling Prophecy says, The restoration of the Jews, according to the sure Word of prophecy immediately follows the termination of the times of the Gentiles.
It is most amazing how deceived men can imagine that the power of resurrection is with them. The Zionist movement is an illustration of how the Jew has been brought to believe that if he should go back to Palestine, occupy and rejuvenate that land, he could rebuild his nation and come under the Divine blessing.
Last year there was a mass meeting, in this city, at which the Minneapolis Jews protested the policy of the British government, which they declared had brought a halt to the movement of Zionism to rehabilitate Palestine. The President of the local Zionist organization called this meeting on the thirteenth anniversary of the Balfours declaration, and was eloquent in denouncing the British policy, declaring that their declaration had practically nullified the Balfour promises to allow the Jews to re-inhabit their native country.
That is not the great need of the Jew; and that is not the revival to which this text refers; nor the resurrection that God promised. It is however, a step in the fulfilment of prophecy and, though taken in unbelief, the prophetic Word finds fulfilment in that fact.
God promises to bring them in again.
I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
Dr. Guinness says: Several stages are to mark this great restoring work. First, the scattered Children of Israel are to be reunited, or unified as a people; secondly, while continuing in unbelief they are to return to their own land, and to be reconstructed as a nation; and thirdly, after passing through the deep trials which await them there, in order to compel them to judge their ways aright, as did Josephs brethren in the trial which befell them in Egypt, they are to be led to repentance for their rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah, and converted by some manifestation of Christ; turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.
Thirty years ago modern critics laughed at the idea of a literal fulfilment of this prophecy. But today that fulfilment is taking place full before their eyes. The Jews are gathering back to Judea by the tens of thousands. The Jewish University is located in Jerusalem; the Jewish population of Palestine has trebled since the close of the war of 1918; millions of dollars have been sent from America alone to extend the agricultural organization, build cities, and otherwise develop the Holy Land.
A year or so ago the city of St. Paul, Minn., listened to a noted Rabbi who had just come back from Palestine, who pled the Zionist cause, declaring that the greatest immigration of the day was that into Palestine; and that the movement itself was receiving daily accessions, since there were large numbers of Jewish residents in eastern European countries, who, owing to the economic burden, had set their faces toward the homeland.
He stated that in 1925, 35,000 new settlers came into Palestine and that in the year of his speech it was hoped that at least 60,000 prospective immigrants would settle in the land.
The God who promised that His Son should ride into Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of an ass, and who, on one day, kept that pledge literally, is not failing to remember His promise to bring these from their open graves in the varied nations of the earth back to their land again.
The occupation of the land is to be in Israels unbelief. Mark you, these are dead bodies that He is bringing back; not living ones. Unbelief is death, and Israel is in the bondage of it. The truth is that Israel is not willingly returning to Judea, the land of promise. They are not going back because of aught that God has said to them. Their migration, in unbelief, is a fulfilment of prophecy that they should be driven back.
Thirty-four hundred and twenty years ago the Prophet penned these words as from the Lord:
I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you * *
And * * I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies (Lev 26:35-37).
And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:
In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see (Deu 28:65-67).
And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers (Deu 30:5).
I never appreciated until this week how perfectly, from a literal standpoint, God remembers and keeps His Word. You are all familiar with the amazing fall of Jerusalem. How General Allenby walked into it on foot. Not a shot was heard; not a sword was unscabbered; not the least resistance to its occupancy, by the army of the Allies, was experienced. The sound of the air plane seemed to fill the Arabs with awe and they opened the gates and the saviours came in.
Now listen to Gods Word:
So shall the Lord of Hosts come down to fight for Mount Zion, and for the Hill thereof.
As birds flying, so will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem defending also He will deliver it; and passing over He will preserve it (Isa 31:4-5).
The literal fulfilment of this prophecy naturally leads to my last suggestion:
THE MIGHTY GOD
Ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves,
And shall put My spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord (Eze 37:13-14).
His Lordship is proven in His saving power.
Ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves.
There are in the New Testament records many evidences of Christs Deity. There is the testimony of angels: there is the witness of Mary and of JosephGodly people. There is the fulfilment of prophecy in the place of His birth, in His parents flight into Egypt, and His later return from the same. There is the matchless wisdom revealed at twelve years; there is the speech such as never fell from human lips; and the miracles such as mortal man never wrought.
But perhaps, in the whole career of Jesus Christ, there was nothing that so fully demonstrated His Deity as when He stood before the grave of Lazarus, a man four days dead, and a body in a hot climate, supposed to be in decomposition, and said, Lazarus, come forth, to be obeyed.
Jesus on one occasion said, Who is good, save God? How much more pertinent the question, Who can raise the dead, save God?
And yet, a greater miracle is the miracle of bringing to life those who are dead in trespasses and sins. And when God has brought Israel, the people now dead in the same, to life again, He has proven His Lordship over all. Nature itself will then be compelled to proclaim Him God.
Many years ago Rabbi Steven Wise, of New York City, was reported to have said, The Jews need not expect help from the douma. Human philanthropy has only healed wounds; it has done nothing to prevent them. The time for a revival is at hand.
What he called a revival was the opening again of the synagogue and the restoration of the old time rites. But, alas, Israel died spiritually, at the very time when the synagogue was constantly patronized and the ceremonials were punctiliously performed. The works of the flesh are not the signs of life. Life is the product of the indwelling Spirit instead, and that is the plan of God. The Jews present need is identical with that of every other man who is spiritually dead, and the promise of God is this: A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
The impartation of His Spirit, that is life.
I * * shall put My spirit in you, and ye shall live.
Gods practices may conform to circumstances; but Gods principles, like Himself, change not.
Nicodemus was a Jew, and yet the teaching for Nicodemus was universal in application; and to him Jesus said,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man he born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
That which is horn of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
The new life is no respecter of persons; it is proffered alike to Jew and Gentile as the gift of Gods grace.
Ernest Gordon, in the life of his great father, Adoniram Judson Gordon, tells of his fellowship with Joseph Rabinowitz, the great Russian rabbi who had been converted to Christ. He quotes from his father the statement, We shall not soon forget the radiance that would come into his face as he explained the Messianic Psalms, when they came into our morning worship, and he suddenly exclaimed with Thomas; My Lord, and my God! for he had seen the nail prints.
Gods plan, therefore, for the redemption of the Jew, as for the redemption of the Gentile, is the revelation of Himself in Christ. That made, life instantly ensues; and, it is a life that is blessed, irrespective of circumstances, if it be lived to the full.
Moore, in The Christ Controlled Life illustrates this fact in a story of Tauler, who being approached by a beggar, said to him, God give you a good day, my friend.
I thank God, said the beggar, I never have had a bad day.
Tauler was astonished; so changed the form of his salutation, God give you a happy day, my friend.
Thank you, said the beggar, I never have had an unhappy one!
Why, said Tauler, how can that be?
To which the beggar replied, When it is fine I thank God, and I am happy. When it rains, I thank God, and am happy. When I am hungry I thank God, and am happy. And since Gods will is my will, that pleases me.
What, said Tauler, if God should cast you into hell?
If He did, said the beggar, I should have two arms to embrace Him with, the arm of my faith wherewith to lean upon His holy humanity, and the arm of my love wherewith I am united to His ineffable Deity, and thus one with Him He would descend thither with me, and there I would rather be with Him in hell than anywhere else without Him.
But, said Tauler, taken aback by the reply, who are you?
I am a king, said the beggar.
A king! said Tauler. Where is your kingdom?
Here, said the beggar, laying his hand on his heart, The Kingdom of God is within! For if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.
The impartation of His Spirit is more than life!
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law (Gal 5:22-23).
Finally, the saved shall acknowledge His power.
Then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord (Eze 37:14).
Bishop Janes used to tell a story, the parallel of which many of us have known, and the story itself is a fit illustration of Gods power to save even the most prejudiced.
A Jewess out of curiosity attended one evening a revival meeting. She was not specially moved by conviction during the service, but as she returned home a thought came flitting across the sky of her mindWhat if Jesus was the Christ? The thought so settled itself in her mind that she found herself unable to stay away from the meeting the next night, and, during the second service, the possibility that Christ was the Messiah sank deeper into her heart. She went again the third night, and on that occasion the conviction seized upon her soul that Jesus was the Christ, and she went home horror-stricken with the thought that she was a poor, lost sinner. The agony of her mind was so great that she aroused her husband at midnight, proud and wealthy Jew as he was, and persuaded him to go to the house of a neighboring Christian and get her a copy of the New Testament. Then, as upon her bended knees she, for the first time in her life, seriously opened the New Testament, a prayer went up from her heart,
O Thou God of Abraham, the father of my people, give me light that I may know the truth!
She opened the Book at the first chapter of Romans and began to read. She read the Apostles wonderful words in amazement, until she came to the sixteenth verse, For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. These words went through her soul like a flash of lightning from Heaven. Then and there she came to a conscious knowledge of the truth. Jesus revealed Himself to her as her Saviour, and she entered by faith into the joy of salvation.
This same glorious experience may be yours today if you will only give yourself bravely and courageously to be the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
(11) Are the whole house of Israel.This Divine interpretation of the vision leaves no doubt of its meaning. Whatever other sense might possibly be attached to its language, there can be no uncertainty as to that which the Spirit intended. The last clause of the verse, cut off for our parts, is obscure in the English, but in the original is simply for usi.e., as for us, we are cut off.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost. We are cut off for us (or ‘our thread of life has been cut off’).’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel, and you will know that I am Yahweh when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, O my people. And I will put my spirit within you, and you will live, and I will place you in your own land, and you will know that I Yahweh have spoken it and have performed it,’ says Yahweh.” ’
God explains the parable. The dry bones were the whole house of Israel, wherever they were. And they were in a state of despondency and hopelessness. They felt that they were like totally dried up skeletons. They had lost hope. They saw themselves as cut off from their land and cut off from God. They had lost any vision of life. They were in process of giving up. The destruction of Jerusalem had dashed their hopes completely.
But through Ezekiel God spoke to them and told them that they need not think like that, for it was as though He would raise their dead bodies from the grave. He would restore their spirits, and lift them out of the graves that they had dug for themselves in their minds, and give them life, and He would bring them back into their own land.
The context of these words and their connection with the prophesying of Ezekiel confirms that we are to see this picture as applying to the post-exilic people of God and not directly to some future age. It is they who would be restored and returned to their land, and would enjoy new life in the Spirit. And it was guaranteed by the word of Yahweh, and He would therefore certainly do it. They had His word for it. We must not underestimate the work of the Spirit in the people of God after the exile.
The picture can of course be applied spiritually to His people in every period. It is a picture of rebirth, of new life in the Spirit of God. But its essential message was to the people of Ezekiel’s day, and it reminds us that we do the words of Ezekiel an injustice when we do not recognise their application to his own day. It was, however, something that would in essence be repeated in the future, for God’s supposed people have often become like dry bones and spiritually dead, and have needed to be revived again.
‘We are cut off for us’ can be rendered ‘our thread of life has been cut off.’ The alternative rendering results from using the same Hebrew consonants but dividing them differently. (In ancient scripts there was no word division and almost no vowels).
The Uniting of the Nation and the Coming King (Eze 37:15-28).
In this passage Ezekiel is shown that Judah and Joseph (Ephraim/Israel) will be made one and that David will arise to be their shepherd. This must be seen as confirming that Israelites will return from many lands, not only from Babylon, although not necessarily in large numbers, or else there would be no necessity for any mention of this. Those of Joseph who had lived in Jerusalem/Judah previously would probably already have been united. (However, it could be that strong feelings existed between different sections which were known to Ezekiel).
Israel had originally split into two in the days of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. That too was because of idolatry, and resulted in idolatry (1Ki 11:30-39; 1Ki 12:1-20; 1Ki 12:28-31). Now this split was to be remedied.
The idea and emphasis is on the unity of God’s people. There is to be no distinction or separation, they are all to be one in the covenant. We can compare how this was Jesus’ emphasis for His people as well, that they might be one (Joh 17:20-23), and the emphasis of Paul that we might be one in Christ (Gal 3:28). God’s constant purpose is oneness between His people.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
DISCOURSE: 1121
SOULS QUICKENED BY THE GOSPEL
Eze 37:11-13. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts. Therefore. prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves.
THE writings both of the Old and New Testament abound with allegories; but the interpretation of them is generally given by the writers themselves. Many of our Lords discourses were of this nature: they are admirably calculated to convey instruction. We have a very remarkable allegory in this chapter. The prophet sees in a vision a valley of dry bones; he is interrogated with respect to the possibility of their living; he is commanded to bid them live in the name of the Lord. On issuing the proclamation he perceived a noise among the bones; the bones shook, and carne, each to its kindred bone; the sinews, flesh, and skin, then came upon them: lastly, in answer to his prayer, life was communicated to them. This allegory is then interpreted by God himself. It describes the state of the Jews in Babylon, and their unexpected deliverance from it. But it may be properly considered as relating to the deliverance of Gods people from the sorer bondage of sin.
We shall take occasion from the text to consider,
I.
The state of unregenerate men
The Jews in Babylon were as unlikely to return to a state of political existence, as dry bones are to the functions of animal life. They themselves despaired of such an event (ver. 11). Their condition fitly represents that of the unregenerate
The unregenerate are dead, even as dry bones
[In this light they are represented by the Apostle [Note: Eph 2:1.];. They are destitute of all inclination or ability to serve God [Note: Php 2:13.]: they have not a sufficiency even for the smallest good [Note: 2Co 3:5.].]
They not unfrequently despair of ever obtaining deliverance
[Despondency is far more common than is generally supposed. Many imagine, like Job, that they are given over by God [Note: Compare Lam 3:18 and Job 19:10.]: hence they express themselves like the desponding Jews [Note: Jer 2:25.].]
They are not, however, beyond the reach of mercy
This will appear by considering,
II.
The means by which God delivers them from it
God can work by the meanest and most contemptible means
[By the sound of rams horns he overthrew Jericho: by the stroke of Elijahs mantle he parted the waters of Jordan: so, by the preaching of his Gospel he quickens the dead.]
He commands his power and grace to be proclaimed
[He is an almighty, all-sufficient God. He promises pardon to all who seek it in his appointed way. He offers his Spirit to renew all who call upon him. He assures the believing soul that it shall never perish [Note: Isa 41:10.]. Thus he encourages the weakest and the vilest to look unto him [Note: Isa 45:22.].]
In this way he accomplishes the deliverance of his people
[A gradual change is made in the most obdurate sinners. There is a great army, of whom it may be said as of the prodigal [Note: Luk 15:24.]: they go forth immediately to the promised land.]
Nor does any one remain ignorant of his benefactor
This leads us to consider,
III.
The effects which this deliverance produces
While dead in sin we imagine we must quicken ourselves
[We know not the depth of misery into which we are fallen. We little think how great a change must take place upon us; nor are we aware how entirely destitute we are of strength.]
But when once we are quickened, we see whence our deliverance came
[We feel by experience the truth of Jeremiahs assertion [Note: Jer 13:23.]. We see that the Apostles themselves were only Gods instruments [Note: 1Co 3:6-7.]. Then we know God to be the Lord, the source of every good. We learn also to commit all our ways to him.]
Infer
1.
How valuable are the ordinances of religion!
[God makes use of his ordinances for the most glorious purposes. He works principally in and by them [Note: Rom 10:17.]. They who neglect them are generally left in darkness; but sincere worshippers reap the greatest benefit from them. Let us never then grow weary of attending them: let us use them with a dependence on God for his blessing.]
2.
What care has God taken to encourage desponding sinners!
[No state can be worse than this represented in the text [Note: ver. 2. very dry.]; yet God has shewn how he could overrule the heart of Cyrus to proclaim liberty, and of his own people to accept it. He displayed also his mighty power in re-establishing his people; what then can he not do for those who are dead in sin? Let none say, My hope is lost, I am cut off. Let it he remembered that the power and grace of Christ are sufficient [Note: Joh 11:25.]. Let every one hear in faith the Apostles exhortation [Note: Eph 5:14.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
See, Reader, how the Lord himself hath graciously explained this vision to the Prophet. Whether, as some read it, the subject refers to the restoration of Israel from Babylon, temporally considered; or, to the recovery of his people, from the graves of sin; spiritually interpreted; or, to the final and complete resurrection of the whole Church of God eternally and forever at the last day; in either, and in every sense the subject is most blessed. And though the people of God are apt to despond under their dying frames and dying circumstances; yet, the recovery being in the Lord himself, the thing is certain, and the vision sure. The Lord undertakes, and it is he which promiseth. He saith, I will open your graves, I will cause you to come up out of them. I will bring you into your own land. I will put my Spirit in you. It is I the Lord which will do all these things. And when these things are done, then shall ye know that I am the Lord, and that the Lord have both spoken and performed it. Reader! if through sovereign mercy, you and I arrive at last safely to heaven, to whom think you shall we then ascribe the wonderful works? Surely there, free grace will then have all that glory. All self-righteousness will be heard no more. And can you assign a single cause why the Lord should not have the glory now?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 37:11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
Ver. 11. These bones are. ] That is, they signify and betoken. And here we have the accommodation or application of the preceding parable or type; where also we may soon see that this chapter is of the same subject and method with the former, only that which is there plainly is here more elegantly discoursed, viz., the deplorable condition of the Israelites in Babylon, together with their wonderful deliverance and restitution in this and the three next verses.
Our bones are dried.
We are cut off for our parts,
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 37:11-14
11Then He said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.’ 12Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. 14I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it, declares the LORD.’
Eze 37:11 we are completely cut off There is a possible manuscript issue in this phrase.
NASBwe are completely cut off
NKJVwe ourselves are completely cut off
NRSVwe are cut off completely
LXXwe are quite spent or we are lost
PESHITTAwe are completely gone
The Tyndale OT Commentary Series, Ezekiel, by John Taylor mentions that F. Perles redivides the phrase to our thread-of-life has been cut off (238), which fits the context better than we have been cut off for us (Niphal PERFECT).
This refers to the Judean’s view of themselves in light of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the exile of the Davidic King. There was no hope humanly speaking (cf. Eze 19:5)!
Eze 37:12-14 These are covenant promises (i.e., the land, cf. Eze 37:12; Eze 37:14) and covenant title (i.e., My people, Eze 37:12-13). The covenant is renewed! Destruction and exile have ceased.
Again one asks the question, when did or will this occur?
1. post-exilic return under Nehemiah (seed of David) and Joshua (seed of High Priest)
2. some future time
Because Israel was attacked again by Rome and the temple destroyed again (A.D. 70), many modern interpreters assert a future orientation. There are certainly eschatological elements in chapters 36-48! My focus is on the conditional nature of prophecy. This reflects what God wanted His people to be and do, as well as what He wanted to do for them, but Genesis 3 (the Fall) got in the way again. Mankind’s fallen propensity can be dealt with only by the Messiah’s work and the new age (new covenant). Chapter 36 surely reflects this, but what of 38-39? Israel is attacked again by surrounding enemies. Security is challenged!
The question is, Was the opposition caused by
1. Israel’s continuing sin
2. evil’s attack on God?
Number 1 fits the post-exilic period (cf. Malachi).
The hard question is, Must all prophecy be literally fulfilled to Israel? I think not. The NT focuses on Jesus, not Israel. The NT widens the OT promises to all humans. The national and/or geographic promises to Israel are not repeated or mentioned by Jesus or the Apostles! This is very surprising, but true (see Special Topic at Eze 34:26).
Eze 37:12 Thus says the Lord GOD This recurrent literary phrase introduces (list from NIDOTTE, vol. 1, p. 445)
1. judgment against the surrounding nations (cf. Eze 25:3; Eze 30:2)
2. judgment against individuals (cf. Eze 28:2; Eze 39:1)
3. judgment against Judah (cf. Eze 5:8; Eze 12:19)
a. her mountains, Eze 6:3
b. her false religious leaders, Eze 13:3; Eze 13:18
c. her faithlessness, Eze 20:30
d. her injustices, Eze 45:9
4. call for Judah to repent (cf. Eze 14:6)
5. message of restoration and forgiveness (cf. Eze 36:33; Eze 37:12; Eze 37:21; Eze 39:25)
6. message of hope to Ezekiel himself (cf. Eze 2:4; Eze 3:11)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
are = they [are]. Figure of speech Metaphor. App-6.
the whole house. As distinct from “the house”,
we are cut off for our parts = as for us, we are quite cut off, or clean cut off.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Eze 37:11-14
Eze 37:11-14
“Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you in your own land; and ye shall know that I, Jehovah, have spoken it and performed it, saith Jehovah.”
GOD’S EXPLANATION OF THE VISION
Despite the powerful words here regarding “coming up out of graves,” we must seek the meaning here as something that would result in people entering literal Canaan (Eze 37:12; Eze 37:14). Long afterward Jesus Christ used almost the same words to speak of the general resurrection (Joh 5:27-29). However, almost in the same breath, and only a moment earlier, our Lord used nearly the same words to speak of the conversion of sinners through obedience to his word. As to the meaning here, Keil is correct in his declaration that, “All of this is nothing more than a pledge of the complete restoration of Israel as a viable people in Palestine.
The physical restoration that followed, however, was partial and incomplete due to the continued sins of Israel. True, a handful returned, and after many delays built a temple; but God’s presence never entered it; they never regained their independence but remained subject to heathen powers, with by far the greater part of the nation remaining among the Gentiles where God had scattered them.
The true and complete restoration of Israel was scheduled for accomplishment in the First Advent of Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of the Messiah. God sent John the Baptist to announce the forthcoming kingdom of God and to identify the Messiah, which he effectively did; but by far the greater part of Israel rejected the message of the Great Herald, who was murdered; nor did they acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Messiah, but rejected him, clamored for his crucifixion, and professed that they had “No king but Caesar!”
In that circumstance, the Christ pronounced the final sentence upon the doomed and hardened race of Israel, a judgment executed upon them by Vespasian and Titus in 70 A.D.
But God had not been defeated. That “righteous remnant,” prophesied by Isaiah especially, rallied in love to the standard of the Resurrected Saviour, forming the nucleus of the New Israel of God, which under the leadership of the apostles spread the kingdom of God all over the world. All of the marvelous promises of the restoration and glorification of Israel were fulfilled in that New Israel and are still being fulfilled.
The explanation of this vision (Eze 37:11) “Makes it self-evident and without need for interpretation.
“Graves …” (Eze 37:13). The appearance of this word tempts us to see some kind of a literal resurrection here, but as Dummelow said, “Still the reference is not to the graves of Israelites actually dead, but to the heathen world as the grave of God’s scattered and discouraged people.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
whole house: Eze 37:16, Eze 37:19, Eze 36:10, Eze 39:25, Jer 31:1, Jer 33:24-26, Hos 1:11, Rom 11:26, 2Co 5:14, Eph 2:1
Our bones: Eze 37:1-8, Num 17:12, Num 17:13, Psa 77:7-9, Psa 141:7, Isa 40:27, Isa 49:14, Jer 2:25
Reciprocal: Ezr 9:8 – reviving Job 14:19 – destroyest Job 17:16 – rest Psa 31:22 – I am Psa 143:3 – made me Isa 49:24 – Shall Jer 18:12 – There Jer 30:12 – General Jer 31:17 – General Jer 32:43 – General Jer 33:10 – which ye Lam 3:18 – General Lam 3:54 – I said Lam 5:22 – But thou hast utterly rejected us Eze 18:2 – the land Eze 33:10 – how Eze 37:2 – they were Eze 37:4 – Prophesy Hos 2:14 – and speak Hos 2:15 – for Hos 6:2 – two Hos 13:14 – ransom Jon 2:4 – I said Hab 1:12 – we Zec 1:6 – Like Zec 4:6 – Not Zec 8:13 – O house Zec 9:12 – even Luk 5:5 – we Luk 22:19 – is my Act 27:20 – all Rom 4:18 – against 1Co 15:35 – How 1Th 4:13 – which have Rev 11:8 – their dead
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 37:11. The Lord gives Ezekiel the interpretation of the foregoing symbols, leaving nothing to guesswork or uncertainty. The second half of this verse is a statement of facts being done at the very time the prophet is writing. That makes history out of the circumstance, and since history shows the fulfillment of a prophecy, I will suggest that the reader connect this with the famous prophecy of Psalms 137.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 37:11-12. These bones are the whole house of Israel These bones represent the forlorn and desperate condition to which the whole nation of Israel is reduced; they say, Our bones are dried, &c. Our affairs are in the most desperate condition; there is not so much as any hope left of their being retrieved. We are cut off for our parts We are separated and cut off from one another, like a limb that is cut off from the body. Therefore prophesy, &c. Inform these poor, dejected, desponding Israelites of their mistake, and revive their hope by a new promise and declaration of my purposes of mercy toward them. O my people, I will open your graves Though your captivity be as death, your prisons and places of confinement close as graves, yet will I open those graves. And cause you to come up out of your graves I will bring you out of your state of captivity, in which you are little better than dead persons, having no power or privileges of your own, nor enjoying any thing which can properly be called life. The Jewish nation, in their state of dispersion and captivity, are called the dead Israelites, by Baruch, chap. Eze 3:4 : and their restoration is described as a resurrection by Isa 26:19. In like manner St. Paul expresses their conversion, and the general restoration which shall accompany it, by life from the dead, Rom 11:15. And the foregoing similitude showed, in a strong and beautiful manner, that God, who could even raise the dead, had power to convert and restore them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Lord explained to Ezekiel that the bones represented the whole house of Israel (cf. Eze 36:10). The Israelites were saying that they were like dry bones: they had been dead for a very long time spiritually as well as physically. They had no hope of life in the future; they had lost all hope of becoming a nation again or of seeing God’s promises to them fulfilled literally. The Lord had cut them off completely; the bones were separated from each other, and the Israelites were scattered over the earth. Consequently, Ezekiel was to prophesy to them that the sovereign Lord would open their graves, cause them to come up out of their graves, and bring them back into the Promised Land. Then they would know that He is God.
"This chapter then does not deal with the doctrine of the personal bodily resurrection but with national resurrection." [Note: Kaiser, p. 243.]