And they will know that I am the LORD; I did not declare in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.
He now mentions the fruit of their repentance, because the Israelites were beginning at length to attribute just honor to his prophecies. For we know that they trifled carelessly while the Prophets were threatening them. Because, therefore, they were in the habit of destroying confidence in all the servants of God, and of reducing as it were their truth to nothing, the Prophet says, that...
Mercy rejoices against judgment here. God leaves a remnant, few of many, and this itself shows they deserved to be cut off with the rest. But those scattered abroad, deprived of Jerusalem's walls, stay themselves on God alone and are given repentance unto life.
AI summary
Commenting on Ezekiel 6:8-10
Thus saith the Lord God, smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot,.... These are gestures of persons in distress and agony, who, to show their trouble and grief, smite one hand against the other; or smite with the hand upon the thigh, as in Jer 31:19; and "stretch out", or "make a distension with the foot" (d); as it is in the Hebrew...