And of these again you shall take some, that is, Ezekiel had to take out a few of the hairs that he put into the hem of his clothes for safekeeping.
And cast them into the fire, and burn them in the fire: Ezekiel had to throw these hairs in the fire, so that they would burn up. The fire is probably the same fire that Ezekiel lit on the brick, in which he burned the first pile of hair. But what the fire represents has changed because it refers to a different time of judgment. The first pile of hair and the fire on the brick represents the people who died at the time Jerusalem was destroyed. But not all the people in Jerusalem died when it was destroyed. The few hairs that Ezekiel kept safe in his pocket represents the people who survived the destruction of Jerusalem and were scattered through the neighboring countries. But not all of these people survived for long. The message of this verse is that God would punish some of those who were left, even though there were not many of them. The extra few hairs burned in this verse represents those people who survived the initial disaster but then were soon destroyed also. So the fire in this verse stands for a later judgment that God would inflict on some of those people who had been taken into exile. The ambiguity here is deliberate to show that the judgment which began at Jerusalem would reach out and touch some of those in the exile as well. It is in this light that the final sentence of the verse makes sense. One possible model for the first half of this verse is “But later you must take out some of these hairs [that you’ve saved] and throw them into the fire and burn them.”
From there a fire will come forth into all the house of Israel: From there is literally “from it.” The pronoun “it” must refer to the fire of judgment in the previous sentence. This fire is a metaphor for the judgment of God on the people of Israel. Thus the judgment that began in Jerusalem and continued among the exiles will finally reach all the house of Israel, that is, all the remaining Israelites. This sentence may be rendered “That fire will spread onto all the people of Israel.”
Most translations do not explain the meaning of the fire on all the people of Israel. But a model for this verse that makes the meaning of the metaphor clear is:
• And then you must take out a few of these hairs and throw them into the fire and burn them. This will show that I am punishing the people who are in exile, and after that I will keep on punishing all the people of Israel.
Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .