Say to the forest of the Negev: Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Lord GOD says: I am about to ignite in you a fire, and it will devour all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and by it every face from south to north will be scorched.
We have here a prophecy of wrath against Judah and Jerusalem, which would more fitly have begun the next chapter than conclude this; for it has no dependence on what goes before, but that which follows in the beginning of the next chapter is the explication of it, when the people complained that this was a parable which they understood not. In this parable, 1.
Commenting on Ezekiel 20:45-49
Then said I, ah Lord God!.... The Septuagint version is, "by no means, Lord, Lord"; that is, let me not be sent on such an errand; at least, let it not be delivered in such figurative terms; or let not such a general calamity befall the people.
fire--every kind of judgment (Eze 19:12; Eze 21:3, "my sword"; Jer 21:14). green tree . . . dry--fit and unfit materials for fuel alike; "the righteous and the wicked," as explained in Eze 21:3-4; Luk 23:31. Unsparing universality of the judgment! flaming flame--one continued and unextinguished flame. "The glowing flame" [FAIRBAIRN]. faces--persons; here the metaphor is merged in the reality.