And ye shall know that I am the Lord ,.... See Gill on Ezekiel 37:6 , when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves ; which is doing that for them which none but the omnipotent God could do; and they seeing his hand and power, his grace and mercy in it, will know, own, and acknowledge him. read more
And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live ,.... Not only a spirit of courage to go up into their own land, and live a civil and comfortable life there; but the Spirit of God, as a spirit of grace and supplication, of truth and holiness, of faith and adoption; and as a spirit of life, having produced a principle of life in them, and so should live spiritually and soberly, righteously and godly; see Ezekiel 36:27 , and I shall place you in your own land ; settle them there in... read more
When I have opened your graves - When I shall have done for you what was beyond your hope, and deemed impossible, then shall ye know that I am Jehovah. read more
And shall put my Spirit - רוחי ruchi . Here רוח ruach is taken for the Holy Ghost. They were living souls, animal and intellectual beings, when they had received their souls, as mentioned above: but they could only become spiritual, holy, and obedient creatures by the Spirit of God actuating their spirits. See the notes on Ezekiel 36:25-27 ; (note). Three degrees or processes have been remarked in this mystic vision. When the prophet was commanded to prophesy - to foretell, on... read more
The valley of dry bones. I. A VISION OF RESTORATION . Undoubtedly, the restoration of Israel is the immediate thought in the mind of Ezekiel. He sees his people stricken to death. The nation is virtually dead. The exiled citizens of Jerusalem have lost all spirit and energy. But with the restoration will come a restored energy to the people. The nation also will once more rise up as from the dead. These resurrections of communities have been seen more than once in history; e . g... read more
The vision of dry bones. As an architect, before erecting a mansion, sketches accurately all his plan on paper—a guide to himself and to his co-workers—so, prior to God's resuscitation of Israel, he sketches out his plan before the mental eye of Ezekiel. By a mighty influence from God, the prophet is borne away in spirit to a great valley in Chaldea, devoted to the burial of Israel's dead. The spot possibly was sadly familiar to the prophet's eye. The loose sand had been swept aside by... read more
1. The view, that what the prophet beheld in vision was the final resurrection of mankind , though favored by Jerome, Calovius, and Kliefoth, must be abandoned, not because the doctrine of a general resurrection would not have been a powerful consolation to the pious-hearted in Israel, or because that doctrine was not then known, but because, in the prophet's own explanation, the bones are declared to be those, not of the whole family of man, but merely of the house of Israel. At the... read more
contain, according to most commentators, the Divine interpretation of the vision, Kliefoth alone contending that they furnish, not so much an exposition of the vision—which, he thinks, must be explained independently, and which he regards as teaching the future resurrection of God's people—as an application to Israel's ease of the doctrine contained in the vision. read more
The Divine Restorer. The interpretation of the vision of the valley of dry bones was given by the prophet himself. It was intended that the Israelites, when restored to their own land and to national unity and vigor, should discern in this restoration the hand of Divine Providence. A most unlikely event was about to happen, and Ezekiel desired that those in whose favor the great interposition was about to be wrought should be mindful, both of the condition of hopelessness into which they... read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Ezekiel 37:1-14
Here is, I. The vision of a resurrection from death to life, and it is a glorious resurrection. This is a thing so utterly unknown to nature, and so contrary to its principles (a privatione ad habitum non datur regressus?from privation to possession there is no return), that we could have no thought of it but by the word of the Lord; and that it is certain by that word that there shall be a general resurrection of the dead some have urged from this vision, ?For? (say they) ?otherwise it would... read more