And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge - the wall (note, ). Image for leading the people to repentance.

And stand in the gap before me for the land - "the gap," i:e., the breach (). Image for interceding between the people and God (as Abraham did, ; and Moses, ; and Aaron, who stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed, ).

I found none - (). Not that literally there was not a righteous man in the city, because Jeremiah, Baruch, etc., were still there; but Jeremiah had been forbidden to pray for the people (), as being doomed to wrath. None now of the godly, knowing the desperate state of the people, and God's purpose as to them, was willing longer to interpose between God's wrath and them. And none "among them" - i:e., among those just enumerated as guilty of such sins (Ezekiel 22:25) - was morally able for such an office.

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