Yet I will leave a remnant, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the nations and throughout the lands.
God adds this promise to temper the bitterness of destruction, but mark what kind of mercy it is: safety comes only through exile, not pardon in the land. They were so depraved that they could not obtain favor except as exiles, a kind of death. His sparing them is inseparable from their dispersion among the nations.
AI summary
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
In prosperity men forget God; in adversity they return. These survivors, carried captive among the nations, shall remember Him through the very afflictions that humble them, and their chastening becomes teaching. What broke them for idolatry shall break them into repentance.
AI summary