Should you not hear the words which the LORD has cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and her cities round about her, when men inhabited the south and the lowland?
Read Chapter 7
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Prophets. He alludes to Isaias lviii. 3. See also Jeremias xiv. 12., and Joel ii. 12. The Jews were always too much attached to the letter, without minding the spirit of the law, being zealous for corporal rather than for spiritual works.
South. Several of these cities were occupied by the Idumeans.
Plain, or Sephala, which afterwards became flourishing and populous. (Calmet)