Ezekiel 37:25

Cf. Ezekiel 36:28.

Jacob my servant Jacob is here the patriarch himself, not as in Isaiah 40 seq. a name for the people. He is referred to as the ancestor cf Israel in Hosea 12:12, as Abraham in Isaiah 29:22. Cf. ch. Ezekiel 33:24; Isaiah 41:8; Isaiah 51:2; Isaiah 63:16.

their prince for ever It is not at all probable that "David my servant" means either the Davidic house or a line of kings. But possibly the point whether the king would be one person living for ever is not before the prophet's mind. It is the quality of the new people and the new ruler that he specially refers to; the point whether generation after generation of the people shall dwell in the land and prince succeed prince is hardly in his mind. The unity of the people and the unity of the ruler, one such as David; the character of the people (Ezekiel 37:24) and their perpetual possession of the land these are the elements of the prophet's idea, and further questions are not touched. In Ezekiel 43:7; Ezekiel 45:8, a succession of princes appears presupposed, but the idea hardly belongs to the present passage.