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<p>The prophet had faithfully delivered the message he was entrusted with, in the close of the foregoing chapter, in the terms wherein he received it, not daring to add his own comment upon it; but, when he complained that the people found fault with him for speaking parables, the word of the Lord came to him again, and gave him a key to that figurative discourse, that with it he might let the people into the meaning of it and so silence that objection. For all men shall be rendered inexcusable at God’s bar and every mouth shall be stopped. Note, He that <i>speaks with tongues</i> should <i>pray that he may interpret</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="1Cor.14.13" href="/passage/?search=1Cor.14.13">1 Cor. 14:13</a>. When we speak to people about their souls we should study plainness, and express ourselves as we may be the best understood. Christ <i>expounded his parables to his disciples</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Mark.4.34" href="/passage/?search=Mark.4.34">Mark 4:34</a>. 1. The prophet is here more plainly directed against whom to level the arrow of this prophecy. He must <i>drop his word towards the holy places</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.21.2" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.21.2">Ezek. 21:2</a>), towards Canaan the holy land, Jerusalem the holy city, the temple the holy house. These were highly dignified above other places; but, when they polluted them, that word which used to drop in the holy places shall now drop against them: <i>Prophesy against the land of Israel</i>. It was the honour of Israel that it had prophets and prophecy; but these, being despised by them, are turned against them. And justly is Zion battered with her own artillery, which used to be employed against her adversaries, seeing she knew not how to value it. 2. He is instructed, and is to instruct the people, in the meaning of the fire that was threatened to consume the forest of the south: it signified a sword drawn, the sword of war which should make the land desolate (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.21.3" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.21.3">Ezek. 21:3</a>): <i>Behold, I am against thee, O land of Israel</i>! There needs no more to make a people miserable than to have God against them; for as, if he be for us, we need not fear, whoever are against us, so, if he be against us, we cannot hope, whoever are for us. And God’s professing people, when they revolt from him, set him against them, who used to be for them. Was the fire there of God’s kindling? The sword here is his sword, which he has prepared, and which he will give commission to; it is he that will <i>draw it out of its sheath</i>, where it had laid quiet and threatened no harm. Note, When the sword is unsheathed among the nations God’s hand must be eyed and owned in it. Did the fire devour <i>every green tree</i> and <i>every dry tree</i>? The sword in like manner shall <i>cut off the righteous and the wicked</i>. Good and bad were involved in the common calamities of the nation; the righteous were <i>cut off from the land of Israel</i> when they were sent captives in Babylon, though perhaps few or none of them were cut off from the land of the living; and it was a threatening omen to the land of Israel that in the beginning of its troubles such excellent men as Daniel and his fellows, and Ezekiel, were cut off from it and conveyed to Babylon. But though the sword <i>cut off the righteous and the wicked</i> (for it <i>devours one as well as another</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="2Sam.11.25" href="/passage/?search=2Sam.11.25">2 Sam. 11:25</a>), yet far be it from us to think that <i>the righteous are as the wicked</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Gen.18.25" href="/passage/?search=Gen.18.25">Gen. 18:25</a>. No; God’s graces and comforts make a great difference when his providence seems to make none. The <i>good figs</i> are sent into Babylon <i>for their good</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Jer.24.5,Jer.24.6" href="/passage/?search=Jer.24.5,Jer.24.6"><span class="bibleref" title="Jer.24.5">Jer. 24:5</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Jer.24.6">6</span></a>. It is only
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