Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.
A refugee brought the news a year and five months after Jerusalem burned, though the prophet had surely heard it sooner through steady commerce between Babylon and the ruins. Yet this eyewitness account was different: a man who escaped the flames himself could speak with particularity and real feeling of what he had seen, fulfilling the sign God gave that one would come to make him hear it with his own ears.
AI summary
Commenting on Ezekiel 33:21-29
Then shall they know that I am the Lord,.... An omniscient Being, that could foresee and foretell what would come to pass; and omnipotent, able to do whatever he pleased, and true and faithful to his word; and a sovereign Lord, whose will cannot be resisted; this they should see, own, and acknowledge: when I have laid the land most desolate, because of all their...
shall fall by the sword--The very object of their confidence would be the instrument of their destruction. Thinking to "stand" by it, by it they shall "fall." Just retribution! Some fell by the sword of Ishmael; others by the Chaldeans in revenge for the murder of Gedaliah (Jer. 40:1-44:30). caves-- (Jdg 6:2; Sa1 13:6).