12 Therefore prophesy, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
I will open your graves - Here is a pointed allusion to the general resurrection; a doctrine properly credited and understood by the Jews, and to which our Lord refers, John 5:25, John 5:28, John 5:29 : "The hour is coming when they that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and come forth."
And cause you to come up out of your graves - I am determined that ye shall be restored; so that were ye even in your graves, as mankind at the general resurrection, yet my all-powerful voice shall call you forth.
Therefore prophesy, and say unto them,.... For their comfort, in order to revive their hope, and encourage their faith, in these distressed circumstances:
thus saith the Lord, behold, O my people: they were his people still, and he had 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 or 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 of himself can rise up out of 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 5:25,
and bring you into the land of Israel; to dwelt 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.
(z) To which it is applied in T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 152. 2, & Taanith, fol. 2. 2.
my people--in antithesis to "for our parts" (Ezekiel 37:11). The hope that is utterly gone, if looking at themselves, is sure for them in God, because He regards them as His people. Their covenant relation to God ensures His not letting death permanently reign over them. Christ makes the same principle the ground on which the literal resurrection rests. God had said, "I am the God of Abraham," &c.; God, by taking the patriarchs as His, undertook to do for them all that Omnipotence can perform: He, being the ever living God, is necessarily the God of, not dead, but living persons, that is, of those whose bodies His covenant love binds Him to raise again. He can--and because He can--He will--He must [FAIRBAIRN]. He calls them "My people" when receiving them into favor; but "thy people," in addressing His servant, as if He would put them away from Him (Ezekiel 13:17; Ezekiel 33:2; Exodus 32:7).
out of your graves--out of your politically dead state, primarily in Babylon, finally hereafter in all lands (compare Ezekiel 6:8; Hosea 13:14). The Jews regarded the lands of their captivity and dispersion as their "graves"; their restoration was to be as "life from the dead" (Romans 11:15). Before, the bones were in the open plain (Ezekiel 37:1-2); now, in the graves, that is, some of the Jews were in the graves of actual captivity, others at large but dispersed. Both alike were nationally dead.
I will open - Though your captivity be as death, your persons close as the grave, yet I will open those graves.
*More commentary available at chapter level.