Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 37:21

"And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:" — Ezekiel 37:21 (ASV)

Will gather them.— The restoration of Israel from their captivity among the nations here, as often elsewhere, is the first step in the fulfillment of the Divine promises. This, however, like the other Divine promises, was fulfilled only to a “remnant,” a course which, as St. Paul shows in Romans 9:27, had been foreseen and foretold from the first. A fulfillment on a larger scale was perpetually prevented by the sins of the people; God did for them all that their stubborn disobedience would allow Him to do.

Yet He did not wholly reject them, but allowed a remnant to keep alive His Church and become the channel of those richer blessings of the new covenant, in which all who will accept His salvation are united in a holier bond, and led to a land of higher promise than Israel after the flesh could ever know.