Ezekiel 24:6

"Wherefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the bloody city, to the caldron whose rust is therein, and whose rust is not gone out of it! take out of it piece after piece; no lot is fallen upon it. For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the bare rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust. That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance, I have set her blood upon the bare rock, that it should not be covered. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great. Heap on the wood, make the fire hot, boil well the flesh, make thick the broth, and let the bones be burned."

"Woe to the bloody city ..." (Ezekiel 24:6). The implications of this epithet hurled against Jerusalem by God Himself may be read in the terrible fate of Nineveh, which city God addressed in the very same language (Nahum 3:1).

"Whose rust is not gone out of it ..." (Ezekiel 24:6) The "rust" here symbolizes the blood-guiltiness of Jerusalem. In the parable, this meant that the ingredients of the caldron were poisoned by the rust, and the mess within fit only to be destroyed.

"Take out of it piece after piece; no lot is fallen upon it ..." (Ezekiel 24:5). Sometimes in antiquity, lots were cast to determine a definite portion of a city either to be slaughtered, or to be made captives. "In the captivity of Jehoiachin and Jehoiachim some were taken, others left."[8] But here, there would be none spared. All were doomed. The indiscriminate destruction of the population is indicated.

"Her blood is in the midst of her ..." (Ezekiel 24:7). This refers to the shameless murder of her victims. Jerusalem did not even bother to conceal or disguise the murders. The thought in this passage takes account of the fact that the blood of Abel, which the ground received, cried unto God for vengeance. Even the blood of animals was supposed to be covered with dust; but Jerusalem's brazen murders of men left the blood visible to all, thus constituting an aggravation of the sin of murder.

"I also will make the pile great ..." (Ezekiel 24:9). This refers to the pile of fuel on the fire, with the meaning that God will make the destruction of Jerusalem as complete as possible.

"Let the bones be burned ..." (Ezekiel 24:10). This means that any residue of the "choice bones" left in the caldron were also to be burned.