Ezekiel 5:2-4

Thou shall burn a third part in the midst of the city In the midst of that portraiture of the city, which the prophet was commanded to make, chap. Ezekiel 4:1. This signified the destruction of the inhabitants within the city by famine and pestilence; for both famine and pestilence may be said to burn, as they make great havoc, and consume as fast as fire. Thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife To show that a third part of the inhabitants should be slain with the sword; either in the sallies they made out of the city against the enemy, or when the city was taken by assault. A third part thou shalt scatter in the wind This signified that a part of them should be dispersed into various countries, as the chaff is dispersed by the wind; I will draw out a sword after them My vengeance shall pursue them in their dispersions, and they shall be everywhere exposed to suffer violence and injury. Also take a few and bind them in thy skirts The Hebrew is, in thy wings. This signified that a small part of them should be preserved in the land; and accordingly we find that Nebuzar-adan, captain-general of the king of Babylon, left a few of them in the land under Gedaliah, as we read Jeremiah 40:5. Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire This expressed the calamity and destruction which should arise from this small remnant differing among themselves: some espousing the part of Gedaliah, who had been set over them by the Babylonians, and was a good man; and others joining themselves to Ishmael, one of the blood of David, but a wicked man; who formed a conspiracy against Gedaliah, and treacherously slew him, which was the occasion of the utter ruin of that poor remainder of the Jews, which were left in their native country. For thereupon some of them went down into Egypt, where they were all consumed according to Jeremiah's prophecy against them, Jeremiah 44:11, &c., and the rest who remained in the land were entirely carried away captive by Nebuzar- adan, Jeremiah 52:30.