20:45-46 The Lord commanded Ezekiel to address Teman with a prophecy. Teman (Heb temanah, right) refers to the south. Perhaps the translators of the NASB left this word untranslated because Teman was also the name of an important town in Edom to Jerusalem's southeast, and they felt the Lord might have intended this prophecy for that town.290The Lord further described the object of this prophecy as the south (Heb. darom) and as the forest in the Negev (Heb. negeb). The Negev was the southern part of Judah that was a buffer geographically between the marginally fruitful southern part of Judah and the wilderness farther to the south. Evidently the whole kingdom of Judah was quite wooded in Ezekiel's day, and the woods extended south into the upper Negev. By using the three most common Hebrew terms for "south,"the Lord referred to Judah. Later He clarified that the south included Jerusalem, its sanctuaries, and all the land of Israel, which was then Judah (cf. 21:2). Judah was, of course, the "Southern Kingdom."
20:47-48 Here it becomes clear that God was using the trees in the south to represent Judah's people. The Lord announced that He was going to judge the Judahites as when a fire sweeps through a forest. All types of people would suffer, the outwardly righteous (green tree) and the outwardly unrighteous (dry tree), and the judgment would affect the whole land.291Everyone would eventually realize that Yahweh had brought this terrible judgment on the Judahites.
"The most devastating consequences [sic] by far of Judah's covenant failure was her depopulation by exile."292
20:49 Ezekiel replied to the Lord that the people were not taking what he said seriously; they were explaining away his announcement of judgment as only a parable or story, not as a symbolic message of real judgment to come.
21:1-2 Again the Lord told His prophet to speak a message of judgment against Jerusalem, the pagan sanctuaries, and the whole land of Israel (i.e., Judah). This would be a clarification of the figures used in the previous parable.
21:3-5 Ezekiel was to announce that Yahweh stood opposed to His people (cf. Luke 9:51; 19:41; 21:20-24). Instead of being their divine defender (cf. Deut. 32:41; Josh. 5:13-15; Isa. 31:8; 34:5-8; 66:16; Jer. 25:31; 50:35-37; Zeph. 2:12), He was going to turn against them and put them to death with a sword (cf. fire, 20:47-48), both the righteous (the green tree) and the wicked (the dry tree) throughout the whole land.293Everyone would know that He had been responsible for the judgment, and He would not sheath His sword (quench the fire, 20:48).294
21:6-7 The Lord told Ezekiel to let the Jewish exiles among whom he lived witness his groaning, grief, and heartbreak as he delivered this message. When the people asked the prophet why he was so sad, he was to tell them that it was because of the coming judgment.
"God would have Ezekiel experience something of what was in His own heart toward the rebellious nation."295
Ezekiel's grief would mark the people to whom he spoke this prophecy when they heard the news that the sword was coming. And the Lord guaranteed that the judgment would indeed come.
