Ezekiel 37:21

Eze 37:21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:

Ver. 21. Behold, I will take the children of Israel,] This was fulfilled when the Jews, and with them many of the ten tribes also, returned to their own country under Zerubbabel and Ezra. As for the rest of the ten tribes that returned not, they degenerated into Gentiles. The Jews say that they were shut up by Alexander the Great in the Caspian mountains, and shall therehence break forth when the Messiah appeareth. Of the Jews in general Tacitus hath observed, that they are very kind to their own countrymen, but to all others very cruel. This might haply move Alexander to serve them in that kind. There are those who understand that text, {Rev 16:12} the kings of the East, concerning the ten tribes whom they place in China, which is called the "land of Sinim," as Junius conjectureth; {Isa 49:12} and who knows but that when all Israel shall be called, {Rom 11:26} raised from the dead, {Eze 37:14} joined into one stick, as here, many of those poor heathens in Asia and America may have part in the same resurrection?

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 37:21-25. Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen — See the margin. I will make them one nation — They shall not be divided any more into separate kingdoms; the consequence of which was, their setting up separate ways of worship, and espousing separate interests: compare Isa 11:13. This promise was in a great degree fulfilled in the restoration of the Jews to their own land from their captivity in Babylon; for then many of the house of Israel returned with the house of Judah, and were united in one body with them, and were under one and the same governor, Zerubbabel; who, though he did not (lest it should give umbrage to the Persian kings) assume the title of king, yet executed the authority, and was looked upon as a king by the Jewish people: but the expressions here made use of seem to imply something further, and to refer, in their full sense, to the final restoration of the Jews, after their conversion to Christianity, when Christ, in a peculiar sense, shall be their king. The Messiah is described as King of the Jews in most of the prophecies in the Old Testament, beginning with that of Gen 49:10, concerning Shiloh. From David’s time he is commonly spoken of as the person in whom the promises relating to the perpetuity of David’s kingdom were to be accomplished. This was a truth unanimously owned by the Jews: see Joh 1:49, to which our Saviour bore testimony before Pontius Pilate, when the question being put to him, Art thou a king? he made answer, Thou sayest [the truth] for I am a king: thus these words should be translated, for St. Paul, alluding to them, calls them a good confession, 1Ti 6:13. The same truth Pontius Pilate himself asserted, in that inscription which he providentially ordered to be written upon the cross; (see Joh 19:19-22;) so that the chief priests impiously renounced their own avowed principles, when they told Pilate that they had no king but Cesar, Eze 37:15. Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols — Or, abominations, as the word שׁקוציםis elsewhere translated, and generally signifies idols: see the margin. But I will save them out of all their dwelling-places — I will bring them safe out of them; and will cleanse them — Both justify and sanctify them. And David my servant — That is, the son of David, who was also David’s Lord; shall be king over them — Shall reign over their hearts and lives; and they shall all have one shepherd — This king shall be their one chief shepherd; others that shall feed and rule the flock shall be shepherds by commission from him. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob — A promise often repeated in this prophecy: see Eze 37:12; Eze 37:21, and the note on Eze 28:25. Even they and their children for ever — The Jews, converted to Christ, shall inherit Canaan till Christ come to judgment at the end of the world.

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

(21) Will gather them.—The restoration of Israel from their captivity among the heathen here, as often elsewhere, is the first step in the fulfilment 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, had been foreseen and foretold from the first. A fulfilment on a larger scale was perpetually prevented by the sins of the people; God did for them all that their obdurate 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.

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

And say unto them, thus saith the Lord God,.... Or, as the Targum,

"thou shalt prophesy to them;''

for what follows is a prophecy of what shall be in the latter day:

behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the Heathen, whither they be gone, or, "from among the Gentiles" (b); not only the Chaldeans, where they were carried captives; but from among the nations where they are now dispersed, and among whom they go freely of their own accord from place to place, for the sake of traffic: and this phrase, "whither they be gone", or "are going" (c), travelling about from one country to another, better describes the present Jews, and their state, than those in the Babylonian captivity:

and will gather them on every side, or, "round about" (d); from the several parts of the world where they are:

and bring them into their own land; the land of Canaan, given by the Lord to their fathers, and to them their posterity, for an inheritance; though now in the possession of others, who, it seems, are not the right owners.

(b) "e medio ipsarum gentium", Junius & Tremellius; "ex gentibus", Starckius; "e vel medio gentium", Piscator, Cocceius. (c) "ambulant, vel ambulantes sunt". (d) "circumquaque", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus, Starckius.

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

See this explained Eze 36:24.

The children of Israel; the ten tribes, as well as Judah and Benjamin; at least, many of the ten tribes.

Whither they be gone: the expression seems to look to them that were gone among the heathen by a voluntary peregrination, whether before the captivity or after it I will not conjecture; but it is likely enough to me, that among the Jews carried away, and among their children, there were some that were uneasy where they were against their wills, who would ramble and range over countries, hoping to fare better; and perhaps these wanderers may be the persons meant by this gone, where they are who walked thither, as the Hebrew.

On every side; the wind was to come from the four coasts of heaven, Eze 37:9, thereby telling us they should, as here, be gathered on every side.

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

Verses 21-28 explain how the unification of the two kingdoms should be brought about. The first step should be the bringing of the people home to their own land (vers. 21, 22); the second, their purification from idolatry (ver. 23); the third, the installation over them, thus united and purified, of one King, the ideal David of the future, or the Messiah (vers. 24, 25); the fourth, the establishment with them of Jehovah"s covenant of peace (ver. 26), and the permanent erection amongst them of Jehovah"s temple (vers. 27, 28).

Vers. 21, 22. I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen. That tills promise was intended to find an initial and partial fulfillment in the return from Babylon is undoubted. That it was also designed to look across the centuries towards the final ingathering of God"s spiritual Israel into their permanent inheritance, the heavenly Canaan, an examination of its terms shows. These clearly presuppose a wider dispersion of Israel than had then, i.e. in Ezekiel"s day, taken place; and that Israel has never yet been made one nation upon the mountains of Israel, is incontestable. Nor is there ground for expecting she ever will be. Not even after the exile closed did all Israel return to Palestine. Nor did it ever come true in their experience that one king was king to them all, since, in point of fact, they never afterwards had an earthly sore-reign at all who was properly independent. If, therefore, the prince who in the future should shepherd them was not to be a temporal monarch, but the Messiah, the probability is that the Israel he should shepherd was designed to be, not Israel after the flesh, but Israel after the spirit, who should walk in his judgments and observe his statutes, and who, in the fullness of the times, should develop out into the Christian Church. Hence it seems reasonable to conclude that their own land, into which they should eventually be brought, would be not so much the veritable soil from which their ancestors had been expelled, as the country or region in which the new, rejuvenated, reunited, and reformed Israel should dwell, which, again, should be n territory cleansed from sin and idolatry, so as to render it a fit abode for a people devoted to righteousness. Viewed in this light, their own land was first Canaan, in so far as after the exile it was cleansed from idolatry; now it is those portions of the earth in which the Christian Church has been planted, so far as these are influenced by the holy principles of religion; finally, it will be the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (Eze_34:24 Eze_36:24)

Vers. 21-28The blessed kingdom.

Understanding this Divine promise to find its true and complete fulfillment in the kingdom of Christ, we may recognize some of the features of that kingdom as it will one day be constituted.

I ITS ONE ACKNOWLEDGED HEAD. The ideal David" (vers. 24, 25) is found, not in any future ruler like Judas Maccabaeus, but in Jesus Christ; in him who is exalted "to be a Prince and a Savior," the Lord and Sovereign of his people everywhere. A far Greater than David is he. (see homily on Eze_34:23, Eze_34:24) He will have no rival in the day of the Lord, when all the Churches of Christ shall know and love the truth, and exalt him in the eyes of the world.

II ITS UNITY. (Vers. 21, 22.) The time will come when the Divine Head of the Church will look down upon a united people. There may be a great variety of organizations, but there wilt be no discord or disunion; none, because, while there will be no uniformity of method, but every order of spiritual life, there will be everywhere prevalent the spirit of a benignant charity, of Christ-like confidence, and love; all Churches and air hearts owning one Savior, teaching one redeeming truth, breathing one spirit, living one life, moving towards one goal, and looking for one prize.

III ITS HOLINESS. (Ver. 23.) There shall be nothing to defile. What the entire absence of idolatry signified in the case of Israel is realized by the Church in the absence of all worldliness and iniquity of every kind from its pale. It is "cleansed" by the truth and power of God, so that vice and violence, oppression and injustice, covetousness and selfishness, uncharitableness and inconsiderateness, are banished from its midst.

IV ITS GLORIOUS MAGNITUDE. "I will multiply them." If the largest promises made to Israel had been fulfilled to the letter, that fulfillment would have been small and slight indeed when compared with the realization they have had in the establishment and the growth of the Church of Christ. And it is extending its borders still, indeed much more rapidly now than in any century but the first. It has attained to a noble magnitude, and wilt "multiply and still increase," until that little stone of Nebuchadnezzar"s dream shall have rolled and grown till it "fills the whole earth.

V ITS JOY IN GOD. God"s "sanctuary is to be in the midst." His "tabernacle shall be with them." He will "be their God, and they shall be his people" (vers. 26, 27). The picture is one of happy, holy converse between God and man. It is a great thing for a nation to rejoice because the Holy One is near, is known and felt to be near. In the "glorious future time," when the kingdom of Christ shall be established on the earth, it will be the very near presence of God that will be felt to be the source of the deepest satisfaction, of the largest and truest enrichment. To be with him, coming into his nearer presence in all the ordinances of religion, to live in the spirit and habitude of devotion, to walk with God all the day long, to be guests at his table, to lift up the face unto him as unto the heavenly Father, to lean on Christ as on the unfailing Friend of the heart and life, this is the heritage of the good in the blessed kingdom of our Lord. C.

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

General Information:

Yahweh continues speaking to Ezekiel.

Behold!

"Look!" or "Listen!" or "Pay attention to what I am about to tell you!"

they will be my people and I will be their God

See how you translated this in Ezekiel 11:20.

translationWords

nation

king

kingdom

defile

false god

sin

save

faithless

pure

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.