A man with a measuring line] The vision is probably connected with what, at the time, was really under discussion, viz. the rebuilding of the walls. The Jews felt that they were few in number, and without proper defences.
3, 4. The interpreting angel stands near the prophet. He goes forth to meet another angel, who asks him to stop this young man in a useless task. The city is destined to have an overflowing population. No walls will be able to contain it. It will stretch forth its houses far out into the surrounding country and seem, not like a walled city, but like a series of country towns packed together.
5. In addition to this reason, the prophet has no faith in warlike fortifications (cp. the subsequent disastrous sieges of Jerusalem by the Syrians and Romans: Jos. 'Wars of Jews,'
1. 6, etc.). God is her best protection. A wall of fire] a figure suggested by the watch-fires, built round a desert caravan when camping at night, to scare away wild beasts: cp. 1 Samuel 25:16.
6-13. This section forms a poetical prophecy, addressed to the Jews still remaining in Babylon.