Ezekiel 37:2

Eze 37:2 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.

Ver. 2. And, lo, they were very dry.] Ex vetustare et carie. This added to the miracle.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze 37:2-3. He caused me to pass by them round about — To take an exact view of them; and behold, there were very many in the open valley — As if it had been a place where a great battle had been fought, and a vast multitude slain, who had been left unburied till the flesh was all consumed, and the bones were divided and scattered about. And lo, they were very dry — Having been long exposed to the sun and wind in the open valley, and the marrow within, as well as the flesh without, being utterly wasted. This circumstance was intended to show how unlikely it was, humanly speaking, that the Jews should ever be delivered from their dispersions and restored; should ever be brought together again, and formed into a body politic, or even into the skeleton of one. Still more unlikely it is that the dead in sin should be quickened, and raised up into living Christians; and most unlikely of all, that the dead bodies of men, after they have been turned into dust, and scattered to the four winds of heaven, should live again, and become bodies of light and glory. And he said, Son of man, can these bones live? — Namely, immediately, and in your sight? Or, as Houbigant renders it, Shall these bones live? The question, as he justly observes, is not concerning the possibility of the fact, for the prophet well knew that God could do all things; but the Lord, introductory to what follows, asks him whether these bones should now revive or not. And though this be the right interpretation of the place, yet a resurrection from the dead is very justly collected from it: for “a simile of the resurrection,” says St. Jerome, “would never have been used to signify the restoration of the people of Israel, unless such a future resurrection had been believed and known; because nobody ever confirms uncertain things by things which have no existence.” And I answered, O Lord, thou knowest — Raising the dead can only be an act of thy power and good pleasure. The prophet replies in a doubting manner, because he knew not the scope of the vision.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37:2 This death scene seemed hopeless; these were not recently expired corpses but miscellaneous bones, scattered everywhere across the ground and . . . completely dried out. This scene symbolized the attitude of the people. Their hopes for themselves were not merely dead; they were dismembered and desiccated.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

dry--bleached by long exposure to the atmosphere.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(2) Very dry—as showing that it was a long time since life had left them, and that the possibility of their living again was far removed.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. the often valley] lit. on the face of the valley. The bones were strewed over the valley in vast numbers, and they appeared bleached and dry. Their great number no doubt was suggested by the actual fact that vast multitudes of the people had been slain with the sword or had otherwise perished; and their “dryness” expresses at least the utter deadness of the nation and the apparent hopelessness of its revival, if not that it had been long dead (Eze_37:11).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And caused me to pass by them round about,....

Round, round (s); several times round, that he might take exact notice of them, of their number, situation, and condition:

and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; as the Jews were in captivity; and as they will be when they shall be converted; and as the number of Christians will be in the spiritual reign of Christ; and as the dead will be at the time of their resurrection, both of the just and unjust:

and, lo, they were very dry; through length of time they had lain there, exposed to wind and weather; the flesh being wholly consumed from off of them, and the marrow within quite dried up; so that there was no probability or hope, humanly speaking, of their being quickened: these are a fit emblem of men in a state of nature and unregeneracy, who have no spiritual life, but are dead in trespasses and sins; have no sense of sin or danger; no strength to redeem and regenerate themselves, or do anything that is spiritually good; have no spiritual motion; no inward desires after God, or affection to him; no lifting up of the heart to him, or going out of the soul in faith and love to Christ; but in themselves entirely lifeless, helpless, and hopeless.

(s) "circum circa", Pagninus; "undique undique", Montanus.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Caused me; I was made to go round about them, in the same manner in which I was carried to see them.

Round about; round, round, perhaps twice or oftener, to view them well. Behold: he reports what he observed remarkable.

Very many; first for number, they were not only many, but very many, as Eze 37:10, they made an exceeding great army.

In the open valley; next the place, the face or surface of the plain, exposed to wind, weather, and to violence.

Very dry; the quality of them, dry, very dry, in which could be nothing that might promise life.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And he caused me to pass by them round about. Not over, as Keil, Klie-foth, and Plumptre translate, but round about them, so as to view them from every side. The result of the prophet"s inspection of the bones was to excite within him a feeling of surprise which expressed itself in a twofold behold; the first occasioned by a contemplation of their number, very many, and their situation, in the open valley, literally, upon the face of the valley; i.e. not underground, where they could not have been seen, but upon the surface of the soil, and not piled up in heaps, but scattered over the ground; and the second by a discernment of their condition as very dry, so bleached and withered as to foreclose, not the possibility alone, but also the thought of their resuscitation.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And He made me pass by them round about the valley. But He did not bring him into its midst because he was a priest.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.