Ezekiel 12:20

And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. THE CITIES THAT ARE INHABITED - left in Judea after the destruction of Jerusalem....

He pursues the same sentiment. He had threatened destruction to Jerusalem and its citizens: he now adds the other cities of Judah which were still inhabited. Lastly, he speaks of the whole land, as if he said that no single corner should suppose itself free from slaughter, since God’s vengeance should attack it as well as the cruelty of enemies through all regions. Jerusalem was the head of the whole nation; Ezekiel predicts its siege, and after that it became easy to overthrow and spoil other cities, so that the whole region was rendered subject to the lust of the enemies. He afterwards adds what we have noticed previously, _ye shall know that I am Jehovah _They had heard this instruction from the Prophets, they ought to have been imbued with it from their earliest childhood, for God had borne witness by many proofs that he was the true God. For his power had become sufficiently known a...

17-20 The prophet must eat and drink in care and fear, with trembling, that he might express the condition of those in Jerusalem during the siege. When ministers speak of the ruin coming upon sinners, they must speak as those that know the terrors of the Lord. Afflictions are happy ones, however grievous to flesh and blood, that improve us in the knowledge of God....

THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND - Chaldaea. OF THE INHABITANTS - In respect to “the inhabitants.” DESOLATE FROM, ALL THAT IS THEREIN - i. e., stripped of all its inhabitants and of all its wealth. At one and the same time, Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem, and Ezekiel in Chaldaea; the prophecies of the former were sent to the exiles, and those of Ezekiel to the dwellers at Jerusalem, that the guiding hand of One God in different places might be made clear (Jerome)....

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 12:1 THE WORD OF THE LORD, etc. This formula, so familiar in Isaiah and Jeremiah, appears for the first time in Ezekiel, but occurs repeatedly afterwards, especially in this chapter (verses 8, 17, 21, 26. and again Ezekiel 13:1; Ezekiel 14:2, _et al._)_. _The teaching by "the visions of God" ceases, and that of direct message or symbolic acts is resumed. In each case the point aimed at was the same. The people who heard the one or saw the other were to be taught how utterly groundless was the hope that Jerusalem could hold out against its enemies. The interval between the two was probably a short one, and the new teaching, we may conjectu

AND THE CITIES THAT ARE INHABITED SHALL BE LAID WASTE,.... Not only the city of Jerusalem, but the other cities of Judea; as they were by the Chaldeans, which were then full of inhabitants: AND THE LAND SHALL BE DESOLATE; the whole land of Judea be destitute of men and cattle, and lie uncultivated, and become barren and unfruitful: AND YE SHALL KNOW THAT I [AM] THE LORD; who were then captives in Babylon, as well as those who should be dispersed among the nations would; see Ezekiel 12:15....

CHAPTER S 12-19 Signs, Messages, and Parables _ 1. Signs given through the prophet (Ezekiel 12:1) _ 2. The message of speedy judgment (Ezekiel 12:21) 3. The message against false prophets and prophetesses. (Ezekiel 13:1) 4. The message against the elders (Ezekiel 14:1) 5. The parable of the vine given to the fire (Ezekiel 15:1) 6. The parable of the abandoned child and Israel's whoredom (Ezekiel 16:1)

THE STRAITS OF THE SIEGE. In another message whose symbols resemble those of Ezekiel 4:10 f., Ezekiel 4:16 f., he seeks to bring home to them the certain and horrible privations of the siege....

THE CITIES... SHALL BE LAID WASTE. Reference to Pentateuch (Leviticus 26:31). App-92. YE SHALL KNOW, &c. See note on Ezekiel 6:7....

A new symbol of the terror and violence and desolation about to come upon the land....