Ezekiel 36:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel The prophet had been ordered, Ezekiel 6:2, to set his face toward the mountains of Israel, and to prophesy against them. Then God was coming forth to contend with his people; but now he is returning in mercy to them, and his prophet must speak good and comfortable words to these mountains; and what he saith to them, he saith to the hills, to the valleys, to the desolate wastes in the country, and to the cities that were forsaken, Ezekiel 36:4, and again, Ezekiel 36:6. The people were gone, some one way and some another; nothing remained there to be spoken to but the places, the mountains and valleys: these the Chaldeans could not carry away with them. Now to show the mercy God had in reserve for the people, the prophet is to speak of him as having a regard for the country, which if the Lord had been pleased for ever to abandon, he would not have called upon it to hear his word, nor would he have showed it such things as these.