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Ezekiel 37:6

The Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 37:6

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

The process of revivification is now divided into two stages—a preliminary stage which should effect the reconstruction of the external skeleton, by bringing together its different parts and clothing them with sinews, flesh, and skin (comp. ); and a finishing stage, which should consist in animating, or "putting breath in" the reconstructed skeleton; corresponding so the two stages into which the process of man's original creation was divided (). The result would be that the resurrected and reanimated bones, like newly made man, would know the Lord.

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So I prophesied as I was commanded. The words uttered were without doubt those of . 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 (, ; ; ); 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 ; ; ; (comp. ), and Ewald explains as "a peal of thunder running through the entire announcement," as in , and , ; 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 (). Yet, though the external framework of the bodies was finished, there was no breath in them—ruach having still the same import as in . With this the preliminary stage in the reanimating process terminated.

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commentaryMatthew Henry on Ezekiel 37:1-14No 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…Matthew HenrycommentaryThe Vision of the Dry Bones. (b. c. 586.)THE VISION OF THE DRY BONES. (B. C. 586.) 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 (…Matthew HenrycommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 37:1-28EXPOSITION This chapter embraces, in its earlier section (Ezekiel 37:1-14), the concluding portion of the "word of God" begun at Ezekiel 36:16; in its later section (Ezekiel 36:15-28), an additional "word," to which the…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 37:1-14The 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 pla…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 37:1-14The 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…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 37:1-12From death to life. The primary reference Of this prophecy is placed beyond all doubt by the passage itself (see Ezekiel 37:12). 1. Israel was in a forlorn and hopeless condition in her dispersion and captivity; she see…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 37:4-10The call to life. The sublimity of this vision is the sublimity, not of imagination, but of truth. But it was truth that was not open to every mind; it was truth discerned by an intellect quickened into supernatural ins…Joseph S. Exell and contributors