Ezekiel 20:47

47 Tell the southern wilderness, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Hear the word of the LORD ! I will set you on fire, and every tree, both green and dry, will be burned. The terrible flames will not be quenched and will scorch everything from south to north.

Ezekiel 20:47 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 20:47

And say to the forest of the south
To the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea: hear the word of the Lord;
attend to it, and receive it, believe it, and take warning from it: thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will kindle a fire in thee;
in Jerusalem; meaning that he would send great calamities among them, the sword of the Chaldean army, famine, and pestilence; and that at last it should be burnt with fire, and the remainder of the inhabitants be carried captive: and it shall devour every green tree, and every dry tree;
all sorts of persons should be consumed by one or other of the above calamities, high and low, rich and poor, good and bad; and if good men should suffer, comparable to green trees, which fire will not so easily burn, not being fit fuel for it; then much more bad men, who were by far the most numerous, comparable to dry trees, and so fit fuel for the flames, and easily consumed thereby: the flaming flame shall not be quenched
or, the "flame, flame"; or, "the flame of flame" ^F15; signifying either the succession of these calamities one after another; or the force and strength of them, which should not be abated until the ruin of the city was completed: and all faces from the south to the north shall be burnt therein;
which some understand of an utter destruction of the Jews, either by sword, famine, and pestilence, or by captivity from Jerusalem or Judea unto Babylon; but rather the meaning is, that all the inhabitants thereof should suffer, from one end of it to the other, from Beersheba to Dan, the country lying in such a position.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F15 (tbhlv tbhl) "flamma flamma, pro flamma continua et perpetua", Vatablus; "flamma inflamatissima", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus "flamma flammae", Montanus, Piscator.

Ezekiel 20:47 In-Context

45 Then this message came to me from the LORD :

46 “Son of man, turn and face the south and speak out against it; prophesy against the brushlands of the Negev.

47 Tell the southern wilderness, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Hear the word of the LORD ! I will set you on fire, and every tree, both green and dry, will be burned. The terrible flames will not be quenched and will scorch everything from south to north.

48 And everyone in the world will see that I, the LORD, have set this fire. It will not be put out.’”

49 Then I said, “O Sovereign LORD, they are saying of me, ‘He only talks in riddles!’”