Ezekiel 33:28,29 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For I will lay the land most desolate I will make the land destitute of inhabitants, by the destruction which shall be made of them by the sword, by wild beasts, and the pestilence, and by their being carried into captivity. And the pomp of her strength shall cease All that wealth and magnificence wherein they pleased themselves, as that which gave them strength and reputation in the eyes of the world, are taken away: see Ezekiel 7:24. Or the phrase may denote the beauty and glory of the temple, which they looked upon as their chief strength and protection; none shall pass through None shall choose even so much as to pass through the country, on account of its being infested with wild beasts through its desolateness, and because the air of it shall be rendered unwholesome, by means of the effluvia arising from dead and dying bodies, and the pestilential diseases which rage in the country, and sweep away its inhabitants. Then shall they know that I am the Lord That I am their Lord, their righteous governor, and just judge. When I have laid the land most desolate, &c. When I have brought these destructive calamities upon it, because of the sins and abominations of its inhabitants. Observe, reader, those are untractable and unteachable indeed, that are not made to know their dependence upon God when all their creature comforts fail them, and they are made desolate.