Utter a parable. — What follows (Ezekiel 24:3-14) was not a symbolical action, but was simply a parable spoken to the people, although the language is just that which would describe action.
Set on a pot. — Rather, the cauldron, the word being the same as in Ezekiel 11:3, and preceded by the definite article referring to that passage. Urgency is indicated by the repetition of the command “set on.” The people in Ezekiel 11:3 had called their city the cauldron; so let it be, the Divine word now says, and set that city upon the fire of the armies of my judgment, and gather into it for destruction the people who have boasted of it as their security.