Ezekiel 20:47-48

Ezekiel 20:47-48

[47] And say  to the forest  of the south,  Hear  the word  of the LORD;  Thus saith  the Lord  GOD;  Behold, I will kindle  a fire  in thee, and it shall devour  every green  tree  in thee, and every dry  tree:  the flaming  flame  shall not be quenched,  and all faces  from the south  to the north  shall be burned  therein. [48] And all flesh  shall see  that I the LORD  have kindled  it: it shall not be quenched. 

What does Ezekiel 20:47-48 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

Here it becomes clear that God was using the trees in the south to represent Judah"s people. The Lord announced that He was going to judge the Judahites as when a fire sweeps through a forest. All types of people would suffer, the outwardly righteous (green tree) and the outwardly unrighteous (dry tree), and the judgment would affect the whole land. The fact that the Babylonians would capture and kill the righteous and the wicked does not contradict chapter18 , which teaches that every person is responsible for his or her own actions. There the point was that God does not punish people for the sins of others but for their own sins. Here the point is that the coming invasion would affect everyone. Everyone would eventually realize that Yahweh had brought this terrible judgment on the Judahites.
"The most devastating consequences [1] by far of Judah"s covenant failure was her depopulation by exile." [2]