Ezekiel 37:12

“Therefore prophesy, and say unto them, &c.] 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…”

“my people--in antithesis to "for our parts" (Eze 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…”

“I will open - Though your captivity be as death, your persons close as the grave, yet I will open those graves. Ezekiel 37:16”

“Therefore: Job 35:14, Job 35:15 I will open: This is a pointed allusion to the resurrection; under which figure Isaiah ( Isa 26:9) also describes the restoration of the house of Israel, when he says, "thy dead men shall live;" at which time their bones are said to flourish ( Isa 66:14), or to be restored to their former strength and vigour; and, in like manner, St. Paul ( Rom 11:15), expresses their conversion by "life from the dead." In the land of their captivity, they seemed as absolutely deprived of their country as persons committed to the grave are cut off from the land of the living; but when Cyrus issued his proclamation, Jehovah, as it were, opened their graves, and when he stirred…”