A promise of

B. C. 587.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

B. C. 587.

deliverance. A. M. 3117. according to their way and accord-|| name's sake, which ye have profaned A. M. 3417. ing to their doings I judged them. among the heathen, whither ye went. 23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before 5 their eyes.

a

20 And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.

21 But I had pity for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.

d

24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon and ye shall be clean: from all your

22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for 25 your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy ||

b

you,

Isa. lii. 5; Rom. ii. 24. d Chap. xx. 41; xxviii. 22.
5 Or, your:
c Psa. cvi. 8.
xxxvii. 21.- - Isa. lii. 15; Heb. x. 22.-

.e

Chap. xxxiv. 13;

- Jer. xxxiii. 8.

their dealings, and false to their words, and the trusts reposed in them, the enemies of the Lord have thereby great cause given them to blaspheme both him and his religion. 2d, God's name was profaned by the sufferings of Israel; for from them the enemies of God took occasion to reproach God, as unable to protect his own worshippers, and to make good his own grants. They said in scorn, These are the people of the Lord; these wicked people! you see he could not keep them in their obedience to his

them in the enjoyment of his favours. These are the people that came out of Jehovah's land; they are the very scum of the nations!

Chap. vii. 3; xviii. 30; xxxix. 24.Chap. xx. 9, 14.able to themselves; by their own way and by their doings By the way of their own choice, their wicked way, forsaking my law, despising my counsel, deserting my worship and temple; and by their || unholy conversation and unrighteous practices. Their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman—As a woman under a legal pollution was forbidden to come within the courts of the temple, or to attend upon God's worship there; so the defilements which the Jews had contracted by their idolatries, adulteries, murders, and other hei-precepts; these miserable people! he could not keep nous sins, rendered them unfit to be acknowledged as God's people, or to offer up any religious service to him. Wherefore I poured my fury upon them -These and their other sins were the true causes of the desolation of their country, and of all the miseries which they underwent, and not any thing in the || land itself, as the heathen said, verse 13. According to their doings I judged them-God frequently repeats that his judgments upon the Jews were no more than what their own ways or doings obliged him to inflict. There was in his dealings with them no arbitrary exercise of sovereignty, but they were dealt with according to their own conduct. And thus God deals with mankind in general: his actions, in regard to them, are not founded in an arbitrary exercise of his absolute sovereignty over them, but || in impartial justice, wisdom, and goodness, and he judges them according to their own ways, and not according to the dictates of an arbitrary will.

Verse 20. When they entered unto the heathen, they profaned my holy name-1st, By their evil practices they brought a scandal on God's name, and gave occasion to the heathen to say, See what profligate wretches these are, who call themselves Jehovah's peculiar people; judge what sort of a God he is who has such worshippers. The Jews were no credit to their profession wherever they went; but, on the contrary, a reproach to it, and the name of God and his holy religion was blasphemed through || them, Rom. ii. 24. Observe, reader, when those that pretend to stand related to God, as his servants and children, and to be in covenant and communion with him, are nevertheless found corrupt in their morals,|| slaves to their appetites and passions, dishonest in

Verses 21-23. But I had pity for my holy nameThat is, as it is expressed chap. xx. 9, I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted, or brought into disgrace, among the heathen: I preserved, reformed, brought back my people from captivity, and re-established them in their own land, for the honour of my mercy, truth, and power. Say, 1 do not do this for your sakes, &c.—The promises I make in your favour are not owing to any desert of yours, but purely to vindicate my own honour. And I will sanctify my great name, &c.—I will give illustrious proofs of my power and goodness, and vindicate my honour from the reproaches with which it hath been blasphemed among the heathen, upon the occasion of your evil doings and your sufferings. And the heathen shall know that I am the LordThe return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity was taken notice of by the heathen as a signal instance of God's providence toward them, as appears from Psa. cxxvi. 2. And their general conversion, and future restoration to their own land, will be a much more remarkable proof of God's fulfilling the promises made to their fathers; so that the heathen themselves will be compelled to observe and When I acknowledge it: see chap. xxxvii. 28. shall be sanctified in you before your eyes-When, by means of the wonderful power and goodness which I shall manifest in your restoration, they shall be convinced that I am indeed the living and true God.

Verse 25. I will sprinkle clean water upon you→→

The great promise of a

B. C. 587.

B. C. 587.

A. M. 3417. filthiness, and from all your idols, will || gave to your fathers; and ye shall A. M. 3417. be my people, and I will be your God.

h

I cleanse you.

26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I heathen.

The expression here alludes to those legal purifica- and to return any devout affections. Out of your tions which were made by sprinkling water upon flesh-That is, out of you. And I will give you a the unclean persons: see Num. viii. 7, and xix. 13. || heart of flesh-A soft and tender heart, that has But the cleansing intended is plainly that of the soul, spiritual senses exercised, and is conscious to itself by the blood of Christ sprinkled upon men's con- of spiritual pains and pleasures; a heart of quite sciences to take away their guilt, (see Heb. ix. 14,|| another temper, hearkening to God's law, trembling and xii. 24,) and by the grace of the Holy Spirit at his threats, moulded into a compliance with his sprinkled on the whole soul, to purify it from all whole will; disposed to do, to be, or to suffer what corrupt inclinations and dispositions; both which God wills; receiving the divine impress as soft wax blessings are received by faith in Christ, and in the receives the impress of the seal. I will put my Spirit promises of God made through him: see Gal. ii. 16, within you-My enlightening, regenerating, and and iii. 14; Acts xv. 9. From all your filthiness-sanctifying Spirit; that Holy Spirit which is given Filthiness, as the apostle expresses it, of flesh and spirit; from all unhallowed appetites, passions, and dispositions; from all impurity of heart and life; from every thing contrary to the mind of Christ, the image of God, or the divine nature; and from all your idols will I cleanse you-From all internal as well as external idolatry; from putting that trust in the work of your own hands, or in any creature, which you ought to put only in your Creator; or from setting your affections on any person or thing in preference to him, who is your Redeemer and Saviour, your Friend and Father, your portion and|| treasure, your God, and your all. Observe, reader, sin is of a defiling nature; idolatry particularly is so; it renders sinners odious to God, and unhappy in themselves; but when our guilt is pardoned, and our corrupt nature sanctified, then we are cleansed from this filthiness; and there is no other way of being saved from it. This God promises to his people here, in order to his being sanctified in them, verse 23. We cannot sanctify God's name, unless he sanctify our hearts, nor live to his glory, but by his grace.

Verses 26, 27. A new heart also will I give you A new disposition of mind, excellent in itself, and vastly different from what it was before; a frame of soul changed from sinful to holy, from carnal to spiritual; a heart in which the law of God is written, Jer. xxxi. 33; a sanctified spirit, in which the almighty grace of God is victorious, and turns it from the world to God, and from all sin to all holiness; a state of mind which is the supernatural gift of God, and not wrought in any man by his own power. And I will take away the stomy heart-The hard, senseless, unfeeling, inflexible heart; the heart unapt and averse to receive any divine impressions, ||

to and dwells in all true believers; and cause you— Sweetly and powerfully, yet without compulsion; to walk in my statutes-In all my ordinances and commandments, and that from judgment, choice, and affection. For our spirits, when renewed by God's Spirit to a disposition conformed to his holiness, readily comply with his will in all things, concur with his designs, and become workers together with him. And ye shall keep my judgments, and do them-Ye shall be willing and able to perform all acceptable obedience, and to live a life of universal holiness and righteousness.

Verses 28-30. And ye shall dwell in the landSpiritual blessings, promised in the last three verses, are now followed with temporal blessings. Thus does earth often follow heaven, and godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come. When the Israelites are thus prepared for mercy, then shall they return to their possessions, and be settled again in them. And there God will acknowledge them for his people, and will protect and bless them as such, bestowing liberally upon them all good things. I will also save you-Will continue to save you; from all your uncleannesses-I will take away the guilt of them, deliver you from the power and pollution of them, and preserve you from the punishments due to them. Salvation from all uncleanness includes justification, entire sanctification, and meetness for glory. And I will call for the corn, &c.—All necessaries are here comprised in one. And lay no famine upon you— This was one of the judgments which they had laboured under; and it had been as much as any other reproach to them, that they should be starved in a land so famed for fruitfulness. But it is here promised, that now this calamity should afflict them no

a

CHAPTER XXXVII.

the house of Israel. 31 Then shall ye remember your || desolate is become like the garden A. M. 3417. own evil ways, and your doings that of "Eden; and the waste, and desowere not good, and 'shall loathe yourselves in late, and ruined cities are become fenced, and your own sight for your iniquities, and for your are inhabited. abominations.

37 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.

38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men; and they

35 And they shall say, This land that was shall know that I am the LORD.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

In this chapter, (1,) By the vision of dry bones, quickened by prophecy, is represented that, however dispersed among enemies, destitute of human help, and dispirited in their own minds, the Jews were in their captivity, God would, by

The vision of

EZEKIEL.

the dry bones. Cyrus's proclamation, and his own influences, animate, help, and gather them to their own land, 1-14. (2,) By the uniting of two sticks in Ezekiel's hand is represented, that notwithstanding the old enmity between them, the Jews and ten tribes would, after the captivity, and especially after the dispersion, happily unite, and renounce their idolatries, and under the Messiah enjoy the most comfortable relation to God, abundant peace and prosperity, and holy fellowship with him, 15–28. But this shall have its more excellent fulfilment in the quickening influences of the Holy Spirit, in the erection of the gospel church, and entrance into the millennial blessedness; in the making of Jews and Gentiles one mystical body of Christ, and in the glorious resurrection and heavenly blessedness. 3 And he said unto me, Son of man, A. M. 3417. can these bones live? and I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.

A. M. 3417.
B. C. 587.

THE IE a hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, 2 And caused me to pass by them round about and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and lo, they were very dry. a Chapter i. 3.- Chapter iii. 14; viii. 3; xi. 24; Luke iv. 1. Or, champaign.

1

b

с

B. C. 587.

4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.

5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; c Deut. xxxii. 39; 1 Samuel ii. 6; John v. 21; Romans iv. 17; 2 Cor. i. 9.

surrection in a proper sense, was as much intended by the Spirit of God, or rather more so, than the other.

NOTES ON CHAPTER XXXVII. Verse 1. The hand of the Lord was upon me-I was actuated by a divine power; and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord-Or, by the Spirit of Verses 2, 3. He caused me to pass by them round the Lord. It is highly probable that all this passed about-To take an exact view of them; and behold, in vision. And set me down in the midst of the val- || there were very many in the open valley—As if it ley full of bones-The first and great object of this had been a place where a great battle had been fought, prophecy seems evidently to be the restoration of and a vast multitude slain, who had been left unbuthe Jews from the Babylonish captivity. A nation ried till the flesh was all consumed, and the bones carried into captivity ceases to be a nation, and there- were divided and scattered about. And lo, they were fore may be fitly compared to bones, or dead bodies; very dry-Having been long exposed to the sun and so that by the valley of bones was first signified, the wind in the open valley, and the marrow within, as Babylonish dominions filled with captive Jews. well as the flesh without, being utterly wasted. This Bishop Warburton observes, "that the messengers circumstance was intended to show how unlikely it of God, prophesying for the people's consolation in was, humanly speaking, that the Jews should ever disastrous times, frequently promise a restoration be delivered from their dispersions and restored; to the former days of felicity; and, to obviate all dis- || should ever be brought together again, and formed trust from unpromising appearances, they put the into a body politic, or even into the skeleton of one. case even at the worst, and assure the people, in|| Still more unlikely it is that the dead in sin should metaphorical expressions, that though the commu- be quickened, and raised up into living Christians; nity were as entirely dissolved as a dead body re- and most unlikely of all, that the dead bodies of men, duced to dust, yet God would raise that community after they have been turned into dust, and scattered again to life." But besides the deliverance of the to the four winds of heaven, should live again, and Jews from Babylon, this vision is a lively representa- become bodies of light and glory. And he said, Son tion of a three-fold resurrection: 1st, Of the resur- of man, can these bones live?-Namely, immedirection of souls, from the death of sin to the life of ately, and in your sight? Or, as Houbigant renders righteousness, to a holy, heavenly, spiritual, and di- it, Shall these bones live? The question, as he justly vine life, by the power of divine grace accompanying || observes, is not concerning the possibility of the fact, the word of Christ, John v. 24, 25. 2d, The resur- for the prophet well knew that God could do all rection of the gospel church, or of any part of it, || things; but the Lord, introductory to what follows, from an afflicted state to liberty and peace. 3d, || asks him whether these bones should now revive or The resurrection of the body at the great day, espe- not. And though this be the right interpretation of cially the bodies of believers, to life eternal. This the place, yet a resurrection from the dead is very last seems to be one thing particularly designed. justly collected from it: for "a simile of the resur"Though the generality of commentators," says rection," says St. Jerome, "would never have been Mr. Peters," regard this vision and prophecy as no used to signify the restoration of the people of Israel, other than a figurative representation and prediction unless such a future resurrection had been believed of a return of the Jews from the captivity of Baby- and known; because nobody ever confirms uncertain lon, or some other of their captivities and dispersions, things by things which have no existence." And I yet, perhaps, we shall find, upon a more attentive answered, O Lord, thou knowest-Raising the dead consideration, that whatever hopes it might give can only be an act of thy power and good pleasure. them of a temporal and national deliverance or The prophet replies in a doubting manner, because prosperity, yet there was evidently something fur he knew not the scope of the vision. ther designed; and that to comfort them in their Verses 4-6. Again he said, Prophesy upon these distressed situation, with the prospect of a future re- || bones-Here sense and understanding are attributed

The vision of the

CHAPTER XXXVII.

dry bones revived.

6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; • and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the 2 wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

d Psa. civ. 30; Verse 9.- Le
Chap. vi. 7; xxxv. 12; Joel ii. 27;
iii. 17. -2 Or, breath. Psa. civ. 30; Verse 5.

B. C. 587.

10 So I prophesied as he command- A. M. 3417. ed me, g and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, "Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

13 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,

14 And shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD

to the dry bones; and as these bones signified the phesy unto the wind--Or rather, unto the spirit, captive Jews, they are with strict propriety called namely, the quickening spirit of God, or principle of upon to hear the word of the Lord. But this is also life, issuing from him, and imparting life to every to be considered, as has been intimated on verse 1, a creature that possesses it. Come from the four winds, prophetical representation of that voice of the Son O breath, O spirit-This signified the gathering of of God which quickens and raises to spiritual life the Jewish people from the different quarters of the such as are dead in sin; and which all that are in world where they were scattered; and breathe on their graves shall hear at the last day, and shall || the slain-Animate these dead bodies; that they come forth out of them. Thus saith the Lord, I will|| may live-May awake into living men. So I procause breath to enter into you, &c.-The breath of phesied, and the breath-The spirit; came into life, as it is expressed Gen. ii. 7. And I will lay them-A soul animated each body; and they lived, sinews upon you, &c.—All the expressions made use fc., an exceeding great army-Not only living men, of here are such as describe the resurrection of a but effective men, fit for service in war, and formidead body. dable to all that should give them any opposition. Applied to the Jews, released and returning from captivity, the words signify that they should amount to a great multitude, when they should be gathered from their several dispersions, and should be united in one body. Observe, reader, with God nothing is impossible: he can, out of stones, raise up children to Abraham, and out of dead and dry bones an exceeding great army, to fight his battles and plead his

Verses 7-10. So I prophesied as I was commanded -I declared these promises or gracious purposes of God concerning these bones. And as I prophesied there was a noise, &c.-Such a noise as we may suppose would arise from the motion of the bones. And behold a shaking—A trembling, or commotion among the bones, enough to manifest a divine presence working among them. And the bones came together, &c.-Glided nearer and nearer, till each bone met the bone to which it was to be joined. Of all the bones of those numerous slain not one was wanting, not one missed its way, not one missed its place, but each knew and found its fellow. Thus, in || the resurrection of the dead, the scattered atoms shall be ranged in their proper place and order, and every|| bone come to its bone-By the same wisdom and power by which they were first formed in the womb of her that was with child. And lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them-Gradually spreading themselves. And the skin covered them above-Enveloped the bones, sinews, and flesh of each body; but there was no breath in them-Or spirit, rather; no souls animated the bodies. Then said he, Pro- ||

cause.

Verses 11, 12. These bones are the whole house of Israel-These bones represent the forlorn and desperate condition to which the whole nation of Israel is reduced; they say, Our bones are dried, &c.-Our affairs are in the most desperate condition; there is not so much as any hope left of their being retrieved. We are cut off for our parts-We are separated and cut off from one another, like a limb that is cut off from the body. Therefore prophesy,&c.—Inform these poor, dejected, desponding Israelites of their mistake, and revive their hope by a new promise and declaration of my purposes of mercy toward them. O my people, I will open your graves— Though your captivity be as death, your prisons and