Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 21:3-4

"and say to the land of Israel, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked. Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:" — Ezekiel 21:3-4 (ASV)

The righteous and the wicked. —This explains the green tree and the dry of Ezekiel 20:47; and all flesh of Ezekiel 21:4-5 corresponds to all faces of the same. These expressions are meant to show the universality of the approaching desolation. The actual separation in God’s sight between the righteous and the wicked has already been plainly set forth in Ezekiel 9:4-6. But still, in this, as in all national judgments, the innocent must necessarily be involved in the same temporal sufferings with the guilty. The general terms of this prophecy are to be limited by what is elsewhere said of the mercy that will be shown to a remnant.