here shall all the house of Israel serve me; all of them I
say, in the land in which they shall please me, and there will I require
your firstfruits, and the chief of your tithes with all your
sanctifications.

In my holy mountain, etc... The foregoing verse, to make the sense
complete, must be understood so as to condemn and reject that mixture of
worship which the Jews then followed. In this verse, God promises to the
true Israelites, especially to those of the Christian church, that they
shall serve him in another manner, in his holy mountain, the spiritual
Sion: and shall by accepted of by him.

20:41. I will accept of you for an odour of sweetness, when I shall have
brought you out from the people, and shall have gathered you out of the
lands into which you are scattered, and I will be sanctified in you in
the sight of the nations.

20:42. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have brought
you into the land of Israel, into the land for which I lifted up my hand
to give it to your fathers.

20:43. And there you shall remember your ways, and all your wicked
doings with which you have been defiled; and you shall be displeased
with yourselves in your own sight, for all your wicked deeds which you
committed.

20:44. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have done
well by you for my own name's sake, and not according to your evil ways,
nor according to your wicked deeds, O house of Israel, saith the Lord
God.

20:45. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

20:46. Son of man, set thy face against the way of the south, and drop
towards the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field.

Of the south... Jerusalem lay towards the south of Babylon, (where the
prohet then was,) and is here called the forest of the south field, and
is threatened with utter desolation.

20:47. And say to the south forest: Hear the word of the Lord: Thus
saith the Lord God: Behold I will kindle a fire in thee, and will burn
in thee every green tree, and every dry tree: the flame of the fire
shall not be quenched: and every face shall be burned in it, from the
south even to the north.

20:48. And all flesh shall see, that I the Lord have kindled it, and it
shall not be quenched.

20:49. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God: they say of me: Doth not this
man speak by parables?

Ezechiel Chapter 21

The destruction of Jerusalem by the sword is further described: the ruin
also of the Ammon