Ezekiel 37:7-8 - Exposition

So I prophesied as I was commanded . The words uttered were without doubt those of Ezekiel 37:4-6 . The effect produced is depicted in its various steps. First, there resulted a noise—literally, a voice —which the Revisers take to have been "a thundering;" and Havernick, Keil, Smend, and others, "a sound" in general; but which Ewald, Hengstenberg, and Schroder, with more propriety, regard as having been an audible voice, if not, as Kliefoth supposes, the trumpet-blast or "voice of God," which, according to certain New Testament passages, shall precede the resurrection and awaken the dead ( John 5:25 , John 5:28 ; 1 Corinthians 15:52 ; 1 Thessalonians 4:16 ); perhaps, as Plumptre suggests, the "counterpart" thereof. Next, a shaking , σεισμὸς ( LXX .); which the Revisers, following Kliefoth, understand to have been an earthquake, as in 1 Kings 19:11 ; Amos 1:1 ; Zechariah 1:1 ; Zechariah 14:5 (comp. Matthew 27:51 ), and Ewald explains as "a peal of thunder running through the entire announcement," as in Ezekiel 3:12 , Ezekiel 3:13 and Ezekiel 38:19 , Ezekiel 38:20 ; but which is better interpreted by Keil, Smend, and others as a rustling proceeding from a movement among the bones. Thirdly, the bones came together in the body as a whole, and in particular bone to his bone; i.e. each bone to the bone with which it was designed to be united, as e.g. "the upper to the lower part of the arm" (Schroder). Lastly, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above ; or, as in the Revised Version, there were sinews upon them , and flesh came up and skin covered them above; precisely as Jehovah had announced to the prophet would take place ( Ezekiel 38:6 ). Yet, though the external framework of the bodies was finished, there was no breath in them — ruach having still the same import as in Ezekiel 38:5 . With this the preliminary stage in the reanimating process terminated.