And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them.
Here is, I. The vision of a resurrection from death to life, and it is a glorious resurrection. This is a thing so utterly unknown to nature, and so contrary to its principles (a privatione ad habitum non datur regressus - from privation to possession there is no return), that we could have no thought of it but by the word of the Lord; and...
Commenting on Ezekiel 37:1-14
And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them,.... And they began to look like men, in the shape of men, and were a body of them, as the Jews did when gathered together: and the skin covered them above; and so looked comely and beautiful, as in the proper form of men; as did the Jews enriched and protected...
So far, they were only cohering in order as unsightly skeletons. The next step, that of covering them successively with sinews, skin, and flesh, gives them beauty; but still "no breath" of life in them. This may imply that Israel hereafter, as at the restoration from Babylon was the case in part, shall return to Judea unconverted at first (Zac 13:8-9).