Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 11:7

"Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this [city] is the caldron; but ye shall be brought forth out of the midst of it." — Ezekiel 11:7 (ASV)

Your slain ... they are the flesh.—They had boasted of the protection of their strong city: it would be a security only to the dead who had fallen by their own violence. The living who vainly trusted in its strength would be brought out of it and delivered as captives to the stranger.

The prophecy here takes up their own simile of Ezekiel 11:3 and shows that it would not help them. On the contrary, in Ezekiel 11:11 it is expressly said that the figure, in their sense of it, would not be true.

The use and repeated recurrence of this singular figure may illustrate the familiarity of the people with this kind of language and help us appreciate the figurative character of many of Ezekiel’s expressions.