Jerome : (Verse 14 onwards) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, your brothers, your brothers: the men near you and all the house of Israel, all of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said: Depart far from the Lord: to us the land has been given as possession. Therefore, thus says the Lord God: because I have removed them far off among the nations, and because I have scattered them among the lands, I will be a small sanctification for them in the lands which they have come to. LXX: And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, your brothers and the men of your captivity, and all the house of Israel is consumed; to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said: You are far off from the Lord; to us is given the land in possession. Therefore say: Thus saith the Lord God: Because I will remove them far off among the nations, and because I will disperse them in the countries, and will be to them a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. First, we must discuss the variety of interpretations. Because in the Hebrew it says, 'the men who are near to you' (for this is the meaning of 'Goolathach'), the LXX translated it as 'the men of your captivity'. Then it follows: 'all whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem told'; instead of 'all', they put 'those' due to the ambiguity of the letters and the word. 'Chullo', which Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion translated as 'all', they rendered as 'consummated', which does not make any sense at all in terms of the meaning. Therefore, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, who had said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, are you bringing to an end the remnant of Israel? Specifically, through the death of Phaltiel and those who were killed with him, because those were not the remnants that the prophet thought were in Jerusalem, but rather those who appeared to be captive in Babylon. And the meaning is this: O son of man, your brothers, who were born of the same lineage as you, your brothers, I say, to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, you have turned away from the Lord because you are captives, and you have given yourselves to Jechoniah, but to us the land of Israel has been given as an eternal possession. So tell them that though I have sent them far away from the land of Israel and scattered them among the nations and commanded them to be in foreign lands, because they have obeyed my command, I will be with them even in foreign and hostile places for a small sanctification. As long as there are some among them who do not submit their necks to idolatry but remember God's commandments, like Daniel and the three young men, it is to be believed that there were others like them, in the likeness of such great rulers that Scripture now recalls (Dan. III). From all these things we learn that we should not insult those who have been handed over to punishment by the judgment of God, nor reproach a person who has turned away from their sins, nor should we ever say to those who repent and leave the Church: 'You have gone far away from the Lord; the land has been given to us as a possession.' For thus says the Lord: Although I have temporarily separated them from my Church and scattered them among the nations, I will still be for them a sanctification, as long as they remember their sins and hasten to return to their former dwelling places due to repentance. — Commentary on Ezekiel