Ezekiel 37:11 - Exposition

These bones are the whole house of Israel . On the principle that "God is his own best interpreter," it should not be difficult to see that, whatever foreshadowings of the final resurrection of the just may be contained in the vision, its primary intention was to depict the political and national restoration of Israel (Ephraim and Judah) whose condition at the time the field of withered bones appropriately represented. That Hitzig errs in supposing the "bones" alluded to in this verse symbolized the portions of Ephraim and Judah then dead, instead of the portions still living (in exile), who considered themselves as practically dead, is apparent from the words that follow. Behold, they say . The complaint was manifestly taken from the popular sayings current among the people of the exile. Broken up, dispersed, expatriated, and despairing, the members of what had once been "the whole house of Israel" felt there was no hope more of recovering national life and unity. The cheerless character of the outlook they expressed by saying, Our bones (not the bones of the dead, but of the living) are dried—meaning, "The vital force of our nation is gone" (the bones being regarded in Scripture as the seat of the vital force comp. Psalms 32:3 )— our hope is lost —our hope, i.e; of ever again returning to our own land or regaining national existence—and we are out off for our parts ; literally, we are cut off for ourselves; which Gesenius explains to mean, "We are lost ," taking לָנוּ as a dativus pleonastteus ; Hitzig, "We are reduced to ourselves;" Delitzsch and Keil, "We are cut off from the land of the living," i.e. it is all over with us; Hengstenberg, "We are cut off—a sad fact for us;" Revised Version, "We are clean cut off;" any one of which renders the force of the words (scrap. Lamentations 3:54 ).