Ezekiel 2:3
Ver. 3. And he said unto me, son of man,.... Now follow his mission and commission, and an account of the persons to whom he was sent:
I send thee to the children of Israel; that were captives in Babylon, in Jehoiakim's captivity; so Christ was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Mt 15:24;
to a rebellious nation, that hath rebelled against me; or, "rebellious Gentiles", {u}; not the nations of the earth, though Ezekiel did prophesy many things concerning them; but the Jews, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; or the twelve tribes of Israel, called Gentiles, because they joined with them in their idolatries; and, as Kimchi says, were divided in their evil works; some worshipping the gods of the Ammonites; and some the gods of the Moabites; and all guilty of rebellion and treason in so doing against the God of heaven:
they and their fathers have transgressed against me, [even] unto this very day; which is an aggravation of their rebellion; their fathers had sinned, and they had followed their ill examples, and had continued therein to that day; and as they, did to the times of Christ, when they were about to till up the measure of their iniquity, Mt 23:31.
{u} Mydrwmh Mywg la "ad gentes, rebelles", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus, Starckius.