Verse 23. - Pestilence was the natural accompaniment of a siege. As in Ezekiel 14:19, blood probably points to death from this cause, as distinct from the slaughter threatened in the following clause.

28:20-26. The Zidonians were borderers upon the land of Israel, and they might have learned to glorify the Lord; but, instead of that, they seduced Israel to the worship of their idols. War and pestilence are God's messengers; but he will be glorified in the restoring his people to their former safety and prosperity. God will cure them of their sins, and ease them of their troubles. This promise will at length fully come to pass in the heavenly Canaan: when all the saints shall be gathered together, every thing that offends shall be removed, all griefs and fears for ever banished. Happy, then, is the church of God, and every living member of it, though poor, afflicted, and despised; for the Lord will display his truth, power, and mercy, in the salvation and happiness of his redeemed people.And I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets,.... The plague and the sword, which are two of God's sore judgments, and often go together; the pestilence slays them that are within, and the sword those the enemy meets with in the streets:

and the wounded shall be judged; that is, punished; or "shall fall" (w), die and perish:

in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; this was literally fulfilled in Zidon, either by Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean army, which besieged it on every side; or by Artaxerxes Ochus the Persian, who took it, and destroyed it; and will have its accomplishment on the antichristian states, eastern and western, when the vials shall be poured out upon them, Revelation 16:1,

and they shall know that I am the Lord God; who am able to foretell things to come, and to accomplish them.

(w) Sept.; "corruent", Pagninus, Vatablus; "cadet", Montanus; so Kimchi and Ben Melech; and which is approved of by Gussetius.