Ezekiel 37:21-25 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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 Isaiah 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 Genesis 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 John 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, 1 Timothy 6:13. The same truth Pontius Pilate himself asserted, in that inscription which he providentially ordered to be written upon the cross; (see John 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, Ezekiel 37:15. Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols Or, abominations, as the word שׁקוצים is 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 Ezekiel 37:12; Ezekiel 37:21, and the note on Ezekiel 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.