Ezekiel 33:27 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Surely they that are in the wastes They who continue to dwell among the desolations of Jerusalem and Judea; shall fall by the sword This they accordingly did, both through the civil dissensions among them, in the conspiracy formed against Gedaliah, and likewise by the Chaldeans revenging his death. And him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts He shall be a prey to lions and other ravenous beasts, that will multiply in the ruined country. And they that be in the forts and caves Out of the reach of men and beasts; shall die of the pestilence My hand shall reach them, and send among them those destructive disorders which shall sweep them away. These three judgments here mentioned, the sword, destructive beasts, and the pestilence, together with famine, are often threatened as the last and finishing strokes of divine vengeance upon the Jewish nation: see Ezekiel 5:12; Ezekiel 5:17; Ezekiel 6:12; Ezekiel 14:21; Jeremiah 15:3. By the forts and caves here spoken of, are meant the strong holds formed by nature in the rocks, or cut out in the sides of the mountains. Many of them were so large that men might secure themselves, their families, and their goods in them. So David is said, 1 Samuel 23:14, to abide in strong holds, and remain in a mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. Such was the cave of Adullam, where David had his residence for some time, and was there resorted to by his relations, (1 Samuel 22:1,) and at another time by his principal officers, 2 Samuel 23:15.