John Gill Commentary Ezekiel 37:12

"Therefore prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel." — Ezekiel 37:12 (ASV)

Therefore prophesy, and say to them
For their comfort, in order to revive their hope, and encourage their faith, in these distressed circumstances:

thus says the Lord, behold, O my people :
they were his people still, and he has a covenant interest in them, and they in him, though in such a low estate; and which was the ground of his care of them, and concern for them, and of doing all the good things to them after mentioned; all proceeded from his covenant, and the grace of it, and their relation to him:

I will open your graves, and cause you to come out of your graves ;
the cities and prisons in Chaldea and other places; where they were confined and held captives, and out of which they could no more deliver themselves than a dead man can rise from his grave:

this is both an emblem of the resurrection of the dead at the last day ^{z}, when they shall come forth out of their graves at the voice of Christ, some to the resurrection of life, and others to the resurrection of damnation; and of dead sinners, raised out of the graves of sin by the power and efficacy of the grace of God; see (John 5:25John 5:28John 5:29) :

and bring you into the land of Israel ;
to dwell in it, and abide there, and be no more dispossessed of it; as they will not, any more, when once settled in it, upon their conversion in the latter day.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F26: To which it is applied in T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 152. 2, & Taanith, fol. 2. 2.