Ezekiel 37:20 (ASV)

Passage

And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thy hand before their eyes.

Nearby Context

Ezekiel 37:18 And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these?

Ezekiel 37:19 say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions; and I will put them with it, [even] with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand.

Ezekiel 37:20 And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thy hand before their eyes.

Ezekiel 37:21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:

Ezekiel 37:22 and I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all;

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "sticks", "whereon", "thou", "writest", "shall", "hand", "before", and "eyes". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "sticks" and "whereon", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 19's "say unto them Thus saith the Lord..." into verse 21's "And say unto them Thus saith the...", so "sticks" and "whereon" belong inside that flow. In Ezekiel context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "sticks" and "whereon" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.