Verse 46 Set thy face toward the south - Towards Judea, which lay south from Babylon, or Mesopotamia, where the prophet then dwelt. The forest of the south field - The city of Jerusalem, as full of inhabitants as the forest is of trees.

Eze 20:46

Drop thy word. The verb is used specially of prophetic utterances (Eze 21:2; Amo 7:6; Mic 2:6, Mic 2:11), and stands, therefore, in the Hebrew without an object. Toward the south. Three distinct words are used in the Hebrew for the thrice-repeated "south" of the Authorized Version.

(1) One which primarily means "the region on the right hand," sc. as a man looks to the east. which Ezekiel also uses in Eze 47:19; Eze 48:28);

(2) the "shining land," used repeatedly in Eze 40:1-49; Eze 42:1-20. (Deu 33:23; Job 37:17; Ecc 1:6; Ecc 11:3); and

(3) the Negeb, the "dry" or "parched" land, the South (always in Revised Version with a capital letter), of Jos 15:21, and the historical books generally, the region lying to the south of Judah. The use of the three words where one might have sacrificed is, perhaps, characteristic of Ezekiel’s affluence of diction. The LXX. treats all three as proper names, and transliterates them as Thaiman, Darom, and N’ageb. Against this region and its inhabitants (they, of course, are the "trees") Ezekiel is directed to utter his words of judgment. The parenthesis in the last sentence gives the key to the prophet’s cypher writing. From Ezekiel’s standpoint on the Chebar, the whole of Judah is as the forest of the south. The "green tree," as in Psa 1:1, Psa 1:2, is the man who is relatively righteous; the "dry tree" is the sinner whose true life is withered; the "fire" the devastation wrought by the Chaldean invaders, as executing the Divine judgment. In our Lord’s words in Luk 23:31 we may probably find an echo of Ezekiel’s imagery.