Ezekiel 33:24 - Exposition

They that inhabit thou wastes of the land . The utterance that follows was probably the direct result of what Ezekiel heard from the messenger. He it was who reported the boastful claims of those who had been left in the land by the Chaldean armies—the "bad figs" of Jeremiah's parable, the least worthy representatives of the seed of Abraham. the assassins of Gedaliah ( Jeremiah 41:1 , Jeremiah 41:2 ), who in these "waste places," the dens and eaves in which they found a refuge, led the lives of outlaws and bandits. The very words of their boast are reproduced: "Abraham, when he was yet but one, received the premise of inheritance. We are comparatively many, and are left as the true seed of Abraham (comp. Matthew 3:9 ). The land is ours, and we will take possession of the estates of the exiles."