Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.
This is Jerusalem - not the mere city, but the people of Israel generally, of which it was the center and representative.
I have set it in the midst of the nations. Jerusalem is regarded in God's point of view as center of the whole earth, designed to radiate the true light ever the nations in all directions (Compare Ezekiel 38:12, margin, 'that dwell in the midst (navel) of the land;' Psalms 48:2, "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great king." This design of God is hereafter to be realized, as is foretold in Jeremiah 3:17, "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered into it"). No center in the ancient pagan world could have been selected more fitted than Canaan to be a vantage ground whence the people of God might have acted with success upon the paganism of the world. It lay midway between the oldest and most civilized states, Egypt and Ethiopia on one side, and Babylon, Nineveh, and India on the other, and afterward Persia, Greece, and Rome.
The Phoenician mariners were close by, through whom they might have transmitted the true religion to the remotest lands; and all around the Ishmaelites, the great inland traders in South Asia and North Africa. Israel was thus placed not for its own selfish good, but to be the spiritual benefactor of the whole world. Compare Psalms 67:1-2; Psalms 67:7, "God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause His face to shine upon us. That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations ... God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him." Failing in this, and falling into idolatry, its guilt was far worse than that of the pagan; not that Israel literally went beyond the pagan in abominable idolatries. But 'corruptio optimi pessima;' the perversion of that which in itself is the best is worse than the perversion of that which is less perfect: it is, in fact, the worst of all kinds of perversion. Therefore their punishment was the severest. So the position of the Christian professing Church now, if it be not a light to the pagan world, its condemnation will be sorer than theirs (Matthew 5:13; Matthew 11:21-24; Hebrews 10:28-29).
Verse 6. She hath changed my judgments into wickedness х watemer (H4784) 'et (H853) mishpaaTay (H4941) lªrish`aah (H7564)] - rather, 'hath resisted my judgments wickedly;' 'hath rebelled against my ordinances for wickedness' (Buxtorf). But see end of note on Ezekiel 5:7.