Toward the south. — The parable of Ezekiel 20:45-48 forms what might be called the text of the discourse in Ezekiel 21. The word south, here occurring three times, is represented in the Hebrew by three separate words, which mean, by their derivation, respectively, “on the right hand” (the orientals always supposing themselves to face the east when they speak of the points of the compass),” the brilliant or “mid-day direction,” and “the dry land,” a common name for the south of Palestine. Judæa is spoken of as “the south,” because, although actually nearly west from Babylon, it could only be approached by the Babylonians from the north, on account of the great intervening desert. Hence the prophets always speak of the armies of Babylon as coming from the north (see Note on Ezekiel 1:4; Jeremiah 1:14-15, &c.).
The forest of the south field, might be originally a mere poetic description of the land; but the figure is developed in the following verses, to make the forest the nation, and its trees the people which compose it.