Ezekiel 37:4

Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. PROPHESY UPON THESE BONES - i:e., prophesy over them; proclaim God's quickening word to them. On account of this innate power of the Divine Word to effect its end, prophets are said to do that which they prophesy as about to be done ()....

1-14 No created power could restore human bones to life. God alone could cause them to live. Skin and flesh covered them, and the wind was then told to blow upon these bodies; and they were restored to life. The wind was an emblem of the Spirit of God, and represented his quickening powers. The vision was to encourage the desponding Jews; to predict both their restoration after the captivity, and also their recovery from their present and long-continued dispersion. It was also a clear intimation of the resurrection of the dead; and it represents the power and grace of God, in the conversion of the most hopeless sinners to himself. Let us look to Him who will at last open our graves, and bring us forth to judgment, that He may now deliver us from sin, and put his Spirit within us, and keep us by his power, through faith, unto salvation....

Verse Ezekiel 37:4. _PROPHESY UPON THESE BONES_]; Declare to your miserable countrymen the gracious designs of the Lord; show them that their state, however deplorable, is not hopeless....

PROPHESY - Not in the sense of predicting what was to come to pass, but simply in that of speaking under the inspiration of God. In Ezekiel 37:5, not “I will cause,” but I cause or am causing....

EXPOSITION This chapter embraces, in its earlier section (Ezekiel 37:1), the concluding portion of the "word of God" begun at Ezekiel 36:16; in its later section (Ezekiel 36:15), an additional "word," to which the former naturally leads. The earlier, under the figure of a resurrection of dry bones, beheld by the prophet in vision, describes the political and religious reawakening of Israel; in the later is depicted, by means of a symbolic action, the reunion of its two branches. The first divides itself into two parts—the vision (Ezekiel 36:1) and its interpretation ...

AGAIN HE SAID UNTO ME, PROPHESY UPON THESE BONES,.... Or, "over these bones" t; or, "concerning these bones" u; foretell that they shall live; tell others of it, and them also: AND SAY UNTO THEM, O YE DRY BONES, HEAR THE WORD OF THE LORD; the word of prophecy concerning you, as the Jews did in Babylon: so unconverted sinners may be preached unto, and their lost and miserable estate in which they are, like dry bones, may be set before them: they may be called upon to attend the external ministry of the word; and they are capable of hearing it with their bodily ears; though it is not profitable to them, for want of faith, yet faith comes hereby; and therefore it is right to attend upon the means, and hear the word. t על העצמות האלה "super ossa haec", Starckius. u "De ossibus istis", Junius Tremellius, Polanus, Piscator....

Ezekiel 37:1. _The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD,_ God's servants learn nothing until they have an experience similar to that of Ezekiel. They must be led by the Spirit of the Lord, and they must have their eyes and mouths opened by him, and then they can both see the vision, and tell the vision to others. Ezekiel 37:1. _And set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,_ Like a huge grave, or charnel-house, or battle-field where the slain had not been buried. No servant of God would go without being sent to such a place, yet it was needful that Ezekiel should be there in order that he might understand and speak the message of God....

CHAPTER S 37-48 The Future Blessings of Israel, the Nation Regathered, Their Enemies Overthrown, the Millennial Temple, and the Division of the Land _ 1. The vision of the dry bones and Judah and Israel reunited (Ezekiel 37:1) _ 2. Gog and Magog and their destruction (Ezekiel 38:1; Ezekiel 39:1) 3. The millennial temple, its worship, and the division of the land (Ezekiel 40:1; Ezekiel 41:1; Ezekiel 42:1;...

THE RESURRECTION OF THE PEOPLE. Those fair ideals, however, cannot abolish the melancholy reality. The truth is that the exiled people are as good as dead and in their graves (Ezekiel 37:11 f.). Over their despondent words the imagination of Ezekiel broods till once, in an ecstatic mood (Ezekiel 37:1), he seemed to see a valley filled with bones, multitudinous, dry, and loosely scattered for they have not even the coherence of skeletons so that there seemed no promise or possibility of life. He hears a Divine voice it is the voice of his own heart asking, Can these bones live? and gradually it is borne in upon him that the resuscitation of the national life is not beyond the power of God. If the breath of the Divine life be breathed through it, then the people may yet rise to their feet. It is of deep sign

UPON. over. Hebrew. _'al_....