11:3 Who say, a [It is] not near; let us build houses: this
[city is] the b caldron, and we [are] the flesh.
(a) Thus the wicked derided the prophets as though they
preached only errors, and therefore gave themselves
still to their pleasures.
(b) We will not be pulled out of Jerusalem, till the hour
of our death comes, as the flesh is not taken out of
the caldron until it is boiled.
11:7 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Your slain whom ye have
laid in the midst of it, they [are] c the flesh, and this
[city is] the caldron: but I will bring you forth out of
the midst of it.
(c) Contrary to their vain confidence he shows in what
sense the city is the caldron: that is, because of the
dead bodies that have been murdered in it, and so lit
as flesh in the caldron.
11:9 And I will bring you out of the midst of it, and deliver
you into d the hands of strangers, and will execute
judgments among you.
(d) That is, of the Chaldeans.
11:10 Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border
of e Israel; and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.
11:13 And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the
son of f Benaiah died. Then I fell down upon my face,
and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt
thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?
(f) It seems that this noble man died of some terrible
death, and therefore the prophet feared some strange
judgment of God toward the rest of the people.
11:15 Son of man, thy g brethren, [even] thy brethren, the men
of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly, [are]
they to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said,
Retire far from the LORD: to us is this land given in
possession.
(g) They that remained at Jerusalem thus reproached them
that were gone into captivity as though they were cast
off and forsaken by God.
11:16 Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Although I have
cast them far off among the nations, and although I have
scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them
as a little h sanctuary in the countries where they
shall come.
(h) They will be yet a little church: showing that the
Lord will ever have some to call on his Name, whom he
will preserve and restore, though they are for a time
afflicted.
11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new
spirit within you; and I will take the i stony heart out
of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
(i) Meaning, the heart to which nothing can enter and
regenerate them anew, so that their heart may be soft
and ready to receive my graces.
11:25 Then I spoke to them of the k captivity all the things
that the LORD had shown me.
