All faces from the south to the north, &c.— "From the south of Judaea to the north, shall be seen nothing but faces, burnt, dried up, pale; melancholy through fear, famine, grief, and despair." Isaiah makes use of a similar expression in describing the horrors of wars; Their faces shall be as flames. See ch. Ezekiel 13:8. Lamentations 4:8; Lamentations 5:10. Joel 2:6 and Calmet. Upon receiving this message from God, the prophet observes, that the people were ready to say, he spoke parables, Ezekiel 20:49. Whether this declaration of God was really as hard to be understood by them as a parable, I shall not take upon me to say; but D'Herbelot, in his Bibliotheque Orientale, has given us a passage of a Persian poet describing the desolation made by a pestilence, the terms whereof very much resemble the words of the prophet:—
"The pestilence, like an avenging fire, ruins at once this beautiful city, whose territory gives an odour surpassing that of the most excellent perfumes.
Of all its inhabitants there remains neither a young man nor an old.
This was a lightning that, falling upon a forest, consumed there the green wood with the dry."
So the pestilence and coals of fire are mentioned together by the prophet Habakkuk, chap. Ezekiel 3:5. Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. See Observations, p. 324.