Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God unto the land of
Israel
The inhabitants of it; not the ten tribes, who were already carried captive; but the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and those that were with them, who dwelt in the land. The mountains, hills, rivers, and valleys, were before addressed; now the land itself: what the Lord by the prophet said unto the land, or the people of it, follows: an end:
for here a colon is to be placed; that is, the end of God's patience and forbearance; he would bear with them no longer, at least but a very little while; the time of vengeance was coming upon them, and an utter consumption should be made of them; see ( Lamentations 4:18 ) ; the end is come upon the four corners of the earth,
or "land"; for not the whole world, and the end of that, as in ( Matthew 24:3 ) , are meant; but the land of Judea and the destruction of it, which should be general; upon the four wings of it, as in the Hebrew text; that is, in all parts of it, east, west, north, and south. The Targum is,
``the punishment of the end, or the punishment determined to come upon the four winds of the earth;''see ( Revelation 7:1 ) ; and this punishment was just going to be inflicted on them; for this prophecy was in the sixth year of King Zedekiah; and in the ninth year of his reign Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem; and in the eleventh year took it, ( 2 Kings 25:1 2 Kings 25:2 ) .