Verse 3

Who say, a [It is] not near; let us build houses: this [city is] the b caldron, and we [are] the flesh.

(a) Thus the wicked derided the prophets as though they preached only errors, and therefore gave themselves still to their pleasures.

(b) We will not be pulled out of Jerusalem, till the hour of our death comes, as the flesh is not taken out of the caldron until it is boiled.

Verse 7

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they [are] c the flesh, and this [city is] the caldron: but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.

(c) Contrary to their vain confidence he shows in what sense the city is the caldron: that is, because of the dead bodies that have been murdered in it, and so lit as flesh in the caldron.

Verse 9

And I will bring you out of the midst of it, and deliver you into d the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you.

(d) That is, of the Chaldeans.

Verse 10

Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of e Israel; and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.

(e) That is, in Riblah, read (2 Kings 25:6).

Verse 13

And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of f Benaiah died. Then I fell down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?

(f) It seems that this noble man died of some terrible death, and therefore the prophet feared some strange judgment of God toward the rest of the people.

Verse 15

Son of man, thy g brethren, [even] thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly, [are] they to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Retire far from the LORD: to us is this land given in possession.

(g) They that remained at Jerusalem thus reproached them that were gone into captivity as though they were cast off and forsaken by God.

Verse 16

Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Although I have cast them far off among the nations, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little h sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.

(h) They will be yet a little church: showing that the Lord will ever have some to call on his Name, whom he will preserve and restore, though they are for a time afflicted.

Verse 19

And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the i stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:

(i) Meaning, the heart to which nothing can enter and regenerate them anew, so that their heart may be soft and ready to receive my graces.

Verse 25

Then I spoke to them of the k captivity all the things that the LORD had shown me.

(k) When Jeconiah was led away captive.