Ezekiel 21:4 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

I will cut off; it is both my purpose and threat, to do that by the Chaldeans in such manner as that it shall appear I did it. The righteous, signified by the green tree, Ezekiel 20:47. The wicked; the dry tree, Ezekiel 20:47. Go forth; have a commission, such as I gave Nebuchadnezzar, as large as is necessary for this work. All flesh; all the Jews that dwell in the land; it may somewhat reflect upon the nations near about the Jews, as Moab and Ammon. From the south; as it doth certainly denote the whole of the land of Judea, it may intimate the rise and spring of this evil from the south, i.e. Babylon, and its progress northward.