Ezekiel — Chapter 37
The valley of dry bones (campus ossium aridorum) — one of Scripture's most dramatic visions, and one of Lapide's favorite passages. He follows the SYNOPSIS (which he writes in full caps) by noting the vision operates on three levels: literal = the restoration of Israel from Babylonian captivity; allegorical = the resurrection of dead souls through Christ; anagogical = the bodily resurrection at the Last Day. All three senses are affirmed as true simultaneously.
Verse 1
Ezekiel is brought in the Spirit to a valley full of very dry bones: Lapide notes the dryness (sicca vehementer) emphasizes the utter hopelessness of the situation — these are not recently dead but long-dead. This is important because the resurrection the vision promises is impossible by any natural power, requiring a purely divine creative act.
Verse 3
'Fili hominis, putasne vivent ossa ista?' — Son of man, can these bones live? Lapide reads Ezekiel's answer ('Domine Deus, tu nosti') as the perfect response of prophetic humility: acknowledging that what is impossible to human reckoning is possible to God. He applies this to all who despair of conversion — no soul is too dead for grace.
Verse 7
The bones come together bone to bone at Ezekiel's prophecy: Lapide develops the analogy between prophetic preaching and the resurrection — the word preached by God's minister has power beyond the mere human voice, just as Elijah's prayer raised the dead. He cites Paul: 'Faith comes from hearing, hearing through the word of Christ' (Rom. 10:17).
Verse 9
Prophecy to the four winds, O Spirit, and breathe upon these slain: Lapide identifies the four winds as the universal mission of the Gospel to the four corners of the earth. The Spirit breathed into the bones is the same Spirit breathed by Christ on the Apostles (Jn. 20:22) and poured out at Pentecost.
Verse 10
A great, exceedingly great army stood up on their feet: Lapide reads this as the eschatological resurrection of the dead described in 1 Cor. 15 and 1 Thess. 4:16. He quotes Tertullian's De Resurrectione Carnis and Augustine's De Civitate Dei (Book 22) extensively in support of bodily resurrection.
Verse 11
These bones are the whole house of Israel: the literal sense refers to the exiles' despair ('our bones are dried up, our hope is lost'). Lapide sees this as a type of every sinner's despair of salvation, which God's word dispels by promising resurrection through repentance.
Verse 15
The two sticks of Judah and Joseph joined into one: Lapide reads this as a Messianic oracle about the union of all peoples in the one Church under Christ. He cites Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho and Irenaeus's Adversus Haereses as early patristic authorities for this interpretation.
Verse 24
'Et servus meus David rex super eos erit, et pastor unus erit omnium eorum' — My servant David will be king and one shepherd over them all: Lapide reads 'David' as Christ (typologically), and 'one shepherd' as the visible unity of the Church under the pope as Vicar of Christ. He explicitly applies this verse to the papacy, citing Leo the Great's sermons.
Verse 26
The covenant of peace, the sanctuary in their midst forever: Lapide reads the 'sanctuary in their midst' as the Eucharist — the permanent, abiding presence of Christ in the tabernacle of the Church, the fulfillment of all Old Testament divine indwelling (Tabernacle, Temple, Ark).
Verse 27
My dwelling place shall be with them and I will be their God and they shall be my people: Lapide connects this to the climax of the entire Bible — 'They will be my people, and I will be their God' is the formula repeated from Exodus through Revelation, finding its ultimate fulfillment in the New Jerusalem of Apoc. 21:3 ('Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man').