Ezekiel 37:21

21 And speak to them, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I [am] taking the {Israelites} from among {the nations to which they went}, and I will gather them from {everywhere}, and I will bring them to their [own] soil.

Ezekiel 37:21 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 37:21

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" ^F2; 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" ^F3, 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" ^F4; 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.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F2 (Myywgh Nybm) "e medio ipsarum gentium", Junius & Tremellius; "ex gentibus", Starckius; "e [vel] medio gentium", Piscator, Cocceius.
F3 (wklh) "ambulant, vel ambulantes sunt".
F4 (bybom) "circumquaque", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus, Starckius.

Ezekiel 37:21 In-Context

19 [Then] speak to them, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I [am] taking [the piece of] wood for Joseph that [is] in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel its associates, and I will put them on it, [the piece of] wood of Judah, and I will make them into one [piece of] wood, so that they be one in my hand.'"

20 And the [pieces of] wood [on] which you wrote will be in your hand before their eyes.

21 And speak to them, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I [am] taking the {Israelites} from among {the nations to which they went}, and I will gather them from {everywhere}, and I will bring them to their [own] soil.

22 And I will make them into one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel, and {they will all have one king as their king}, and they will not again be two nations and will not again divide into two kingdoms again.

23 And they will not defile themselves again with their idols and with vile idols and with all of their transgressions, and I will save them from all of their apostasy {by which they sinned}, and I will cleanse them and they will be for me as a people and I, I will be for them as God.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "sons/children of Israel"
• [b] Literally "which they went there"
• [c] Literally "all around"