Therefore thus saith the Lord God
Applying the parabolical expressions they had derided, and explaining them, in a different sense from what they had put upon them: your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they [are] the flesh;
the prophets they had killed; the persons, who had died innocently for crimes laid to their charge they had not been guilty of; and such who had fallen by one judgment or another since the siege, they were the persons intended by "the flesh", and not such as were alive; and therefore could promise themselves nothing from this proverb they had taken up, and scoffed at: and this [city is] the cauldron;
that holds the slain, and in which they will lie and continue, and not the living: but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it:
where they promised themselves safety, and a long continuance; yet should not abide, but be carried captive.