Old Testament Commentary - Ezekiel 4

by Don R. Hender


Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
Commentary & Explanation
Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
           CHAPTER 4            

Ezekiel creates a type and shadow of the siege and famine that shall befall Jerusalem.

 1 THOU also, son of man, take thee aa tile, and lay it before theea, and bpourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:
 2 And alay siege against it, and bbuild a fort against it, and ccast a dmount against it; set the camp also against it, and set ebattering rams against it round about.
 1a take thee a tile, and lay it before thee Like a child playing a game or a military commander laying out a plan with miniture objects, Ezekiel is told to represent before his own eyes that which will come upon Jerusalem in its coming destruction. More than words heard the visual effect of this three diminsional model would have engrained the actual events which would occur in the destruction of Jerusalem. Ezekiel likely played this model out before various companies of Jews in Babylon to demonstrate his prophecy from the Lord against those left in the city of Jerusalem.
 3 Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a asign to the house of Israel.
 4 Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.
 5 For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
 6 And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.
 7 Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.
 8 And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.
 9 ¶ Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and afitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.
 10 And thy ameat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.
 11 Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.
 12 And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.
 13 And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their adefiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.
 14 Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been apolluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which bdieth of itself, or is ctorn in pieces; neither came there dabominable flesh into my mouth.
 15 Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.
 16 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with aastonishment:
 17 That they may want bread and water, and be aastonied one with another, and bconsume away for their iniquity.