Ezekiel 33:23

“Then the word of the Lord came unto me, &c.] After the messenger had delivered his message, and he had received it, and conversed with him about it: saying: as follows:”

“The exhortation to repentance. Ezekiel first addresses the remnant that still linger in their ancient home, and warns them against presumptuous hopes resting on false grounds Ezekiel 33:23-29; then he turns his eyes to those near him, and points out that their apparent attention to his words was illusory. Ezekiel 33:24 Those wastes - The places in the holy land devastated by the conqueror. Abraham - The argument is, Abraham was but one man, and he had the promise of the land, though he did not at once possess it; much more shall we, the descendants of Abraham, being many, retain this promise and possess the land, though for a time we are depressed and subject. Compare Matthew 3:9; John 8:33,…”

“33:23-33 Both those in Judah (33:23-29) and those in exile (33:30-33) continued to act as they had before Jerusalem fell. 33:23-26 Those who remained in the ruined cities of Judah hoped to turn the disaster of the Exile into an opportunity for personal profit rather than repentance. Claiming to be the sole remaining heirs of the promise to Abraham, they sought possession of the entire land. By their behavior, they proved that they were not really Abraham’s children. They did not follow the laws prohibiting eating meat still containing blood (see Deut 12:23), they worshiped idols, and they murdered the innocent. The lives of such people were a denial of Abraham’s faith, and they would not…”

“Preaching of Repentance after the Fall of Jerusalem The first word of God, which Ezekiel received after the arrival of the fugitive with the intelligence of the destruction of Jerusalem, was not of a consolatory, but of a rebuking nature, and directed against those who, while boasting in an impenitent state of mind of the promise given to the patriarchs of the everlasting possession of the Holy Land, fancied that they could still remain in possession of the promised land even after the destruction of Jerusalem and of the kingdom of Judah. This delusion the prophet overthrows by the announcement that the unrighteous are to have no share in the possession of the land of Israel, but are to…”