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The bold and daring figure of this passage is suited to the circumstances which call forth the exclamation and the assurance of repenting Israel, as it is in harmony with the vigorous style of the prophet.

I. SPIRITUAL INSENSIBILITY AND APOSTASY ARE SPIRITUAL DEATH. There is a moral death, and it is into this that ungodly individuals and nations plunge, as into a black sea of unfathomable depth. It is trifling with sinners to tell them that they are not quite all that they might be. The Hebrew prophets spoke plainly and faithfully, and addressed them as "the dead."

II. FROM THIS DEATH THE LORD OF LIFE ALONE CAN QUICKEN AND DELIVER. The prophet does not profess to raise the dead, nor does he send them to any human helper or physician. He alone, who first breathed the breath of life into the soul, can rekindle the expiring flame. By his death and resurrection the Divine Savior interposed upon the behalf of a dead humanity. In him was life; and he himself has foretold that all wire are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and come forth, i.e. to a new, a spiritual, an eternal life.

III. THIS WORK OF QUICKENING SHALL NOT ONLY BE COMMENCED; IT SHALL BE PERFECTED. Revival shall be followed by raising up, and that by life unto God. Christ came that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly. In his miracles of raising the dead, we notice the successive stages by which the reality of the work was evidenced. And corresponding with these stages are the advances in spiritual vitality and all its proofs and signs made by those in whom there dwells that Spirit who is "the Lord and Giver of life."

IV. DIFFIDENCE EXPECTS DELAY IN THIS PROCESS OF QUICKENING, WHICH THE LIVING LORD DISPENSES WITH. How natural is the shamefaced, modest hope? "Not perhaps yet, but soon, it may be after a delay of two days; then on the third day the Lord will revive us." But the word goes forth, "Breathe upon these slain, that they may live! ' and lo? the breath comes from the four winds without delay, and the dead bones live, and the Lord of life is glorified. - T.

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KJV: After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

WEB: After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.