And the word of the LORD came to me:
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
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...
An introductory brief description in enigma of the destruction by fire and sword, detailed more explicitly in Eze. 21:1-32.