Ezekiel 37:18 (LSB)

Passage

And when the sons of your people speak to you saying, ‘Will you not declare to us what you mean by these?’

Nearby Context

Ezekiel 37:16 “Now as for you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write on it, ‘For Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.’

Ezekiel 37:17 Then draw them together for yourself one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand.

Ezekiel 37:18 And when the sons of your people speak to you saying, ‘Will you not declare to us what you mean by these?’

Ezekiel 37:19 say to them, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “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, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.”’

Ezekiel 37:20 And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "sons", "people", "speak", "saying", "declare", and "mean". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "sons" and "people", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 17's "Then draw them together for yourself one..." into verse 19's "say to them Thus says Lord Yahweh...", so "sons" and "people" 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 "sons" and "people" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.