Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate.
National sins bring national judgments without fail. When vice becomes widespread and heinous, God stretches forth His hand in punishment with grievous plagues suited to the sin. He commands a variety of judgments to show His universal dominion over all human concerns.
AI summary
Commenting on Ezekiel 14:12-23
Or if I bring a sword upon that land,.... The land which had grievously sinned; the same land into which a famine should come, and through which evil beasts should pass; to which, if the Lord should add, as he would, a third judgment, the sword; suffer a foreign enemy to come in among them, and destroy them.
The sin is defined plainly: treachery toward God through apostasy or the withholding of what is due Him. When such trespass becomes national, even the three most righteous deliver only their own souls by their righteousness; the land itself becomes a desert, stripped of all its people.
AI summary
Commenting on Ezekiel 14:12-20