Albert Barnes Commentary Ezekiel 11:3

"that say, [The time] is not near to build houses: this [city] is the caldron, and we are the flesh." — Ezekiel 11:3 (ASV)

It is not near – In contradiction to Ezekiel 7:2.

Let us build houses – “To build houses” implies a sense of security. Jeremiah instructed the exiles to “build houses” in a foreign land because they would not soon leave it (Jeremiah 29:5; Jeremiah 35:7). These false counselors promised their countrymen a sure and permanent abode in the city which God had doomed to destruction. No need, they said, to go far for safety; you are perfectly safe at home.

The Hebrew, however, is difficult: literally it means, “It is not near to build houses,” which may be explained as spoken in mockery of such counsel as that of Jeremiah: matters have not gone so far as to necessitate “house-building” in a foreign land. The same idea is expressed by the image of the “caldron:” whatever devastation may rage around the city, we are safe within its walls, as flesh within a caldron is unburned by the surrounding fire .