Ezekiel 12:1

Ezekiel 12:1. The word of the Lord also came, &c.— This happened in the sixth year of Zedekiah, and five years before the siege of Jerusalem. The prophesies in the following chapters to the 20th are of the same year. The prophet here applies himself to those of the captivity among whom he dwelt: they saw Jerusalem still inhabited, and under the government of its own king; so that they who were left in the land of Canaan, insulted the exiles, who repined at their own situation; thinking those who dwelt at Jerusalem in a much better condition than themselves. The following parables, therefore, are designed to shew, that they who were left behind to sustain the miseries of a siege and the insults of a conqueror, would be in a much worse situation, than those who were already settled in a foreign land. See Lowth and Calmet. Houbigant, however, is of a different opinion, and thinks that this prophesy was delivered while Ezekiel dwelt in Jerusalem, before he was carried captive to Babylon.