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.