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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Ezekiel 4 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/ezekiel/4.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/ezekiel/4.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/ezekiel/4-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../ezekiel/">Ezekiel</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../ezekiel/3.htm" title="Ezekiel 3">◄</a> Ezekiel 4 <a href="../ezekiel/5.htm" title="Ezekiel 5">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ezekiel/4-1.htm">Ezekiel 4:1</a></div><div class="verse">Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, <i>even</i> Jerusalem:</div>IV.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">Take thee a tile.</span>—The use of tiles for such purposes as that here indicated was common both in Babylonia and in Nineveh. When intended for preservation the writing or drawing was made upon the soft and plastic clay, which was afterwards baked. It is from the remains of great libraries prepared in this way that most of our modern knowledge of Nineveh and Babylon has been derived. It is, of course, quite possible that Ezekiel may have drawn in this way upon a soft clay tile; but from the whole account in this and the following chapters it is more likely that he simply described, rather than actually performed, these symbolical acts.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ezekiel/4-2.htm">Ezekiel 4:2</a></div><div class="verse">And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set <i>battering</i> rams against it round about.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Lay siege against it.</span>—It must have seemed at this time unlikely that Jerusalem would soon become the subject of another siege. The only power by whom such a siege could be undertaken was Babylon, Egypt having been so thoroughly defeated as to be for a long time out of the question; and Nebuchadnezzar had now, within a few years, thrice completely conquered Judaea, had carried two of its kings, one after the other, captive in chains, and had also taken into captivity 10,000 of the chief of the people, setting up as king over the remnant a creature of his own, who was yet of the royal house of Judah. A fresh siege could only be the result of a fresh rebellion, an act, under the circumstances, of simple infatuation. Yet of this infatuation Zedekiah, through the “anger of the LORD” (<a href="/2_kings/24-20.htm" title="For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.">2Kings 24:20</a>), was guilty, and thus the prophecy was fulfilled. The prophecy itself is undated, but must have been between the call of Ezekiel in the fifth month of the fifth year (<a href="/ezekiel/1-2.htm" title="In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,">Ezekiel 1:2</a>) and the next date given (<a href="/ezekiel/8-1.htm" title="And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there on me.">Ezekiel 8:1</a>), the sixth month of the sixth year. The siege began, according to <a href="/jeremiah/52-4.htm" title="And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it round about.">Jeremiah 52:4</a>, in the tenth month of the ninth year, so that the prophecy preceded its fulfilment by only about four years.<p><span class= "bld">Build a fort against it.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">a tower. </span>The several acts of a siege are graphically described. First the city is invested; then a tower is built, as was customary, of sufficient height to overlook the walls and thus obtain information of the doings of the besieged. Instruments for throwing stones or darts were also sometimes placed in such towers; next is “cast a mound against it,” a common operation of the ancient siege (comp. <a href="/isaiah/37-33.htm" title="Therefore thus said the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it.">Isaiah 37:33</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/32-24.htm" title="Behold the mounts, they are come to the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what you have spoken is come to pass; and, behold, you see it.">Jeremiah 32:24</a>), in which a sort of artificial hill was built to give the besiegers an advantage; then the camps (not merely camp) are set round the city to prevent ingress and egress; and finally “the battering rams” are brought against the walls. These last were heavy beams, headed with iron, and slung in towers, so that they could be swung against the walls with great force. They are frequently to be noticed in the representations of sieges found in the ruins of Nineveh. The practice of forming the end of the beam like a ram’s head belongs to the Greeks and Romans; but the instrument itself was much older.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ezekiel/4-3.htm">Ezekiel 4:3</a></div><div class="verse">Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it <i>for</i> 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 <i>shall be</i> a sign to the house of Israel.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">An iron pan.</span>—The margin gives the sense more accurately, <span class= "ital">a flat plate. </span>It was used for baking cakes (see <a href="/leviticus/2-5.htm" title="And if your oblation be a meat offering baked in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil.">Leviticus 2:5</a>, marg.). This was to be set for a wall of iron between the prophet (representing the besiegers) and the city, doubtless as symbolical of the strength of the besiegers’ lines, and of the impossibility there would be of an escape from the city by a sally. Their foes should be made too strong for them defensively as well as offensively.<p><span class= "bld">A sign to the house of Israel.</span>—As already said, the tribe of Judah, with the associated remnants of the other tribes, is considered as representing the whole nation after the Assyrian captivity, and is spoken of as “the house of Israel” except when there is occasion to distinguish especially between the two parts of the nation. (See <a href="/ezekiel/3-7.htm" title="But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they will not listen to me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted.">Ezekiel 3:7</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/3-17.htm" title="Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.">Ezekiel 3:17</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/5-4.htm" title="Then take of them again, and cast them into the middle of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.">Ezekiel 5:4</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/8-6.htm" title="He said furthermore to me, Son of man, see you what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn you yet again, and you shall see greater abominations.">Ezekiel 8:6</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/21-2.htm" title="And he had brothers the sons of Jehoshaphat, Azariah, and Jehiel, and Zechariah, and Azariah, and Michael, and Shephatiah: all these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king of Israel.">2Chronicles 21:2</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/28-27.htm" title="And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem: but they brought him not into the sepulchers of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.">2Chronicles 28:27</a>, &c.) The prophecy would have been equally effective whether seen as a symbolic act or only related.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ezekiel/4-4.htm">Ezekiel 4:4</a></div><div class="verse">Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: <i>according</i> to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Lie thou also upon thy left side.</span>—Here a fresh feature of this symbolical prophecy begins, while the former siege is still continued (<a href="/ezekiel/4-7.htm" title="Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and your arm shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against it.">Ezekiel 4:7</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it.</span>—The expression, <span class= "ital">to bear the iniquity of any one, </span>is common in Scripture to denote the suffering of the punishment due to sin. (See, among many other passages, <a href="/context/ezekiel/18-19.htm" title="Yet say you, Why? does not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son has done that which is lawful and right, and has kept all my statutes, and has done them, he shall surely live.">Ezekiel 18:19-20</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/23-35.htm" title="Therefore thus said the Lord GOD; Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore bear you also your lewdness and your prostitutions.">Ezekiel 23:35</a>; <a href="/leviticus/19-8.htm" title="Therefore every one that eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has profaned the hallowed thing of the LORD: and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.">Leviticus 19:8</a>; <a href="/numbers/14-34.htm" title="After the number of the days in which you searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you shall know my breach of promise.">Numbers 14:34</a>; <a href="/isaiah/53-12.htm" title="Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he has poured out his soul to death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.">Isaiah 53:12</a>.) It is clear, therefore, that Ezekiel is here to represent the people as enduring the Divine judgment upon their sins. This may seem inconsistent with his representing at the same time the besiegers of Jerusalem, the instruments in the Divine hand for inflicting that punishment; but such inconsistencies are common enough in all symbolic representations, and neither offend nor in any way mar the effect of the representation. “The house of Israel” is here expressly distinguished from “the house of Judah,” and means the ten tribes. They are symbolised by the prophet’s lying on his <span class= "ital">left </span>side, because it was the Oriental habit to look to the east when describing the points of the compass, and the northern kingdom was therefore on the left.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ezekiel/4-5.htm">Ezekiel 4:5</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">The years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days.</span>—Comp. <a href="/numbers/14-34.htm" title="After the number of the days in which you searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you shall know my breach of promise.">Numbers 14:34</a>. In regard to the number of the years, see Excursus II. at the end of this book.<p>(6) <span class= "bld">The iniquity of the house of Judah forty days.—</span>This forty days is clearly subsequent and additional to the 390 days, making in all a period of 430 days. (On these numbers see Excursus II. at the end of this book.) The great disproportion between the two is in accordance with the difference in the two parts of the nation, and the consequent Divine dealings with them. Judah had remained faithful to its appointed rulers of the house of David, several of whose kings had been eminently devout men; through whatever mixture with idolatry it had yet always retained the worship of Jehovah, and had kept up the Aaronic priesthood, and preserved with more or less respect the law of Moses. It was now entering upon the period of the Babylonish captivity, from which, after seventy years, a remnant was to be again restored to keep up the people of the Messiah. Israel, on the other hand, had set up a succession of dynasties, and not one of all their kings had been a God-fearing man; they had made Baal their national god, and had made priests at their pleasure of the lowest of the people, and in consequence of their sins had been carried into a captivity from which they never returned.<p><span class= "bld">EXCURSUS B: ON CHAPTER 4:5, 6.</span><p>The explanation of the periods of time here mentioned has occasioned great difficulty and difference of opinion among the commentators. The subject may be best approached by first observing what points are clearly determined in the text itself, and then excluding all interpretations which are inconsistent with these.<p>In the first place, it is expressly stated in each of these verses that these days represent years. No interpretation, therefore, can be admitted which requires them to be literal days. Secondly, it is plain that the period is one of “bearing their iniquity”; not a period in which they are becoming sinful, but one in which they are suffering the punishment of their sin. Thirdly, it is plain from the whole structure of the symbolism that this period is in some way intimately connected with the siege of Jerusalem. Finally, the two periods of 390 and of forty days are distinct. If the symbolism was carried out in act, they must have been consecutive, and it is still the natural inference that they were so, even if it was only in vision. The two periods together, then, constitute 430 days; yet this is not to be emphasised, since no express mention is made of the whole period.<p>These points of themselves exclude several of the explanations that have from time to time been put forward. Among these must be mentioned, first, one which has perhaps been more generally adopted than any other of its class, the supposition that the 390 years of Israel’s punishment are to be reckoned from some point in the reign of Jeroboam to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. This, however, was far more a period of accumulation of Israel’s transgression than of suffering its punishment; neither in this case could the period be fairly considered as extending beyond the end of the kingdom of Israel (which lasted in all but 253 years) unless it was also extended indefinitely. Moreover, expositors who adopt this view are quite unable to give any satisfactory account of Judah’s forty years; for the proposal to reckon them from the reformation of Josiah is quite at variance with the character of the period described.<p>Every attempt to make these periods refer to a future time, stretching on far beyond the date of the prophecy, fails for want of any definite event at the end of either 390, 40, or 430 years.<p>The periods cannot be understood of events occurring in the course of the siege because, as already said, the numbers are expressly said to stand for years. Moreover, even if they could be taken of literal days, there would be nothing to correspond to them, since from the investment of the city to the flight of Zedekiah was 539 days, and to the destruction of the Temple twenty-eight days more (<a href="/2_kings/25-1.htm" title="And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.">2Kings 25:1</a>; <a href="/2_kings/25-3.htm" title="And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.">2Kings 25:3</a>; <a href="/2_kings/25-8.htm" title="And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, to Jerusalem:">2Kings 25:8</a>).<p>Of two other explanations, it is only necessary to say a word: that of Theodoret is based upon the Greek version, which, by a curious mistake, has 190 instead of 390 days, and of course falls to the ground when the true number is considered; the ancient Jews and some early Christians interpreted the passage of a period of 430 years, which they conceived was to be fulfilled from the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, in the second year of the Emperor Vespasian, to its expected restoration, which the event has shown to be groundless.<p>Another ancient interpretation makes of the period of 430 years, the time from the building to the destruction of Solomon’s Temple. This is open to the same objections already urged to others, and besides, it makes the total number the prominent thing, while there is no point of division for the 390 and the 40. St. Jerome reckoned the 390 years from the captivity of the northern kingdom to the deliverance of the Jews from danger in the time of Esther, and the 40 years from the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar to the decree of Cyrus for the restoration of the Jews; but his chronology is at fault, and the former part of the explanation takes no notice of the main point of the siege of Jerusalem, while the events in the time of Esther cannot be looked upon as the termination of the punishment of the Israelites.<p>The later Jews make up the two periods by selecting throughout the period of the Judges and the monarchy the various times in which the sins of Israel and of Judah were especially marked, and adding these together; but this is utterly arbitrary and unsatisfactory.<p>So much space has been given to these different interpretations in order to show that there is no definite term of years, either before or after the date of the prophecy, which the ingenuity of the commentators has been able to discover, satisfying the conditions of the prophecy itself. We are, therefore, left free to accept the interpretation now generally given by the best modern expositors.<p>This takes for its starting-point the evident allusion of Ezekiel to <a href="/numbers/14-14.htm" title="And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that you LORD are among this people, that you LORD are seen face to face, and that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.">Numbers 14:14</a>, “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year shall ye bear your iniquities;” and the earlier prophecies declaring that the people in punishment for their sins should be brought again into Egypt, which yet should not be Egypt (<a href="/deuteronomy/28-68.htm" title="And the LORD shall bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spoke to you, You shall see it no more again: and there you shall be sold to your enemies for slaves and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.">Deuteronomy 28:68</a>; <a href="/hosea/8-13.htm" title="They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of my offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepts them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.">Hosea 8:13</a>; <a href="/hosea/9-3.htm" title="They shall not dwell in the LORD's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.">Hosea 9:3</a>; <a href="/hosea/11-5.htm" title="He shall not return into the land of Egypt, and the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.">Hosea 11:5</a>), but Assyria or Babylonia, as is expressly defined in some of these prophecies. The meaning is plainly that they should endure sufferings corresponding to the Egyptian bondage, but in another locality. Ezekiel himself elsewhere (<a href="/ezekiel/20-35.htm" title="And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.">Ezekiel 20:35</a>) speaks of God’s dealings with the captives as a pleading with them “in the wilderness.” Now if this be once recognised as the basis of Ezekiel’s language—the representation of the future in terms of the historic past, which is so common in all prophecy—there need be no difficulty in the mention of the precise numbers. They become mere catch-words to carry the mind to the period he would indicate. The wanderings in the wilderness were always reckoned at 40 years, and the sojourn in Egypt (see <a href="/exodus/12-40.htm" title="Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelled in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.">Exodus 12:40</a>) at 430 years. Ezekiel merely follows here his habit of putting everything into vivid and concrete form. Are his people to suffer for their sins as they suffered of old? Judah is to endure the 40 years of wilderness sufferings, and Israel those of the Egyptian bondage; only, if he spoke of the latter as 430 years, it might seem that Israel was to endure the punishment belonging to both Israel and Judah, and therefore he takes from it the period already assigned to Judah, leaving for Israel 390 years. This accounts for his not mentioning the 430 years at all, and could be done the more easily because the actual <span class= "ital">bondage</span> in Egypt was far less than either number. No precise period whatever is intended by the mention of these numbers, but only a vivid comparison of the future woes to the past. Again, whatever might be their present sufferings, they still had hope, and even indulged in defiance, while Jerusalem and the Temple stood. This hope was vain. The holy city and the Temple itself should be destroyed, and then they would know that the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them indeed for the punishment of their sins. The siege of Jerusalem is, therefore, the prominent feature of the prophecy; and there is foretold, as the consequence of this, the eating of “defiled bread among the Gentiles” (<a href="/ezekiel/4-13.htm" title="And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them.">Ezekiel 4:13</a>) as in Egypt of old, together with the various forms of want and suffering set forth in the striking symbolism of this chapter.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ezekiel/4-7.htm">Ezekiel 4:7</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm <i>shall be</i> uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">Set thy face </span>is a common Scriptural expression for any steadfast purpose. (See <a href="/leviticus/17-10.htm" title="And whatever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eats any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people.">Leviticus 17:10</a>; <a href="/leviticus/20-3.htm" title="And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he has given of his seed to Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.">Leviticus 20:3</a>; <a href="/context/leviticus/20-5.htm" title="Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit prostitution with Molech, from among their people.">Leviticus 20:5-6</a>; <a href="/leviticus/26-17.htm" title="And I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and you shall flee when none pursues you.">Leviticus 26:17</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/20-3.htm" title="And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.">2Chronicles 20:3</a>, marg., &c.) It is a particularly favourite phrase with Ezekiel (<a href="/ezekiel/15-7.htm" title="And I will set my face against them; they shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them; and you shall know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against them.">Ezekiel 15:7</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/20-46.htm" title="Son of man, set your face toward the south, and drop your word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field;">Ezekiel 20:46</a>, &c.). Here this steadfastness of purpose was to be exercised “toward the siege of Jerusalem;” there would be no relenting in this matter—God’s purpose of judgment should surely be fulfilled. Further symbolism to the same effect is added, “Thine arm shall be uncovered,” withdrawn from the loose sleeve of the Oriental robe, and made ready for battle. (Comp. <a href="/isaiah/52-10.htm" title="The LORD has made bore his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.">Isaiah 52:10</a>.) Withal he is to “prophesy against it,” doubtless by words suited to his actions.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ezekiel/4-8.htm">Ezekiel 4:8</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">I will lay bands upon thee.</span>—See on <a href="/ezekiel/3-25.htm" title="But you, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands on you, and shall bind you with them, and you shall not go out among them:">Ezekiel 3:25</a>. This is a fresh feature of the unrelenting character of the judgment foretold: God’s power should interpose to keep the prophet to his work. Not only pity, but even human weakness and weariness, should be excluded from interfering. The prophet is spoken of as besieging the city, because he is doing so in figure.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ezekiel/4-9.htm">Ezekiel 4:9</a></div><div class="verse">Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, <i>according</i> to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Take thou also unto thee wheat.—</span>The grains enumerated are of all kinds from the best to the worst, indicating that every sort of food would be sought after in the straitness of the siege. If the mixing of these in one vessel and making bread of them all together was not against the exact letter of the law, it was, at least, a plain violation of its spirit (<a href="/leviticus/19-19.htm" title="You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle engender with a diverse kind: you shall not sow your field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woolen come on you.">Leviticus 19:19</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/22-9.htm" title="You shall not sow your vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of your seed which you have sown, and the fruit of your vineyard, be defiled.">Deuteronomy 22:9</a>), thus again indicating the stern necessity which should be laid upon the people.<p><span class= "bld">Three hundred and ninety days.</span>—No mention is here made of the additional forty days. (See Excursus.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ezekiel/4-10.htm">Ezekiel 4:10</a></div><div class="verse">And thy meat which thou shalt eat <i>shall be</i> by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">By weight, twenty shekels a day.</span>—The weight of the shekel is somewhat differently estimated by different authorities. The best computations fix it at about 220 grains, and this would make the allowance of twenty shekels equal to something less than eleven ounces, scarcely enough to sustain life. “Meat” is here used, as often in Scripture, of any kind of food. The extreme scarcity of food is also denoted by its being weighed rather than measured. “From time to time” means at set intervals of time (see <a href="/1_chronicles/9-25.htm" title="And their brothers, which were in their villages, were to come after seven days from time to time with them.">1Chronicles 9:25</a>), here doubtless once a day. Only the longer period of 390 days is here mentioned, but the same command doubtless applied to both periods.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ezekiel/4-11.htm">Ezekiel 4:11</a></div><div class="verse">Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">The sixth part of an hin.</span>—There is also a difference among the authorities as to the measures of capacity for liquids. These would make the sixth part of an hin from six-tenths to nine-tenths of a pint. This also was to be drunk once a day.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ezekiel/4-12.htm">Ezekiel 4:12</a></div><div class="verse">And thou shalt eat it <i>as</i> barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">As barley cakes.</span>—These were commonly cooked in the hot ashes, hence the especial defilement caused by the fuel required to be used. Against this the prophet pleads, not merely as revolting in itself, but as ceremonially polluting (<a href="/ezekiel/4-14.htm" title="Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul has not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.">Ezekiel 4:14</a>; see <a href="/leviticus/5-3.htm" title="Or if he touch the uncleanness of man, whatever uncleanness it be that a man shall be defiled with, and it be hid from him; when he knows of it, then he shall be guilty.">Leviticus 5:3</a>; <a href="/leviticus/7-21.htm" title="Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain to the LORD, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.">Leviticus 7:21</a>), and a mitigation of the requirement is granted to him (<a href="/ezekiel/4-15.htm" title="Then he said to me, See, I have given you cow's dung for man's dung, and you shall prepare your bread therewith.">Ezekiel 4:15</a>).<p><span class= "bld">In their sight</span>—This is still a part of the vision. The words have been thought to determine that the whole transaction was an actual symbolic act and not a vision; but this does not follow. It need only have been a part of the vision that what was done was done publicly.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ezekiel/4-13.htm">Ezekiel 4:13</a></div><div class="verse">And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">Eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles.</span>—The Mosaic law purposely so hedged the people about with detailed precepts in regard to their food and its preparation, that it was impossible for them to share the food of the Gentiles without contracting ceremonial defilement; and the declared object of this symbolism is to teach that the Israelites should thus be forced to contract defilement. Their sins had brought them to that pass, which is so often the result of continued and obdurate sin, that it should be impossible for them to avoid further transgression. Ezekiel shows by his reply, in <a href="/ezekiel/4-14.htm" title="Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul has not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.">Ezekiel 4:14</a>, that like St. Peter, in <a href="/acts/10-14.htm" title="But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.">Acts 10:14</a>, he had ever been a scrupulous observer of the law. To St. Peter, however, it was made known that in the breadth of the Christian dispensation this ceremonial law was now done away, while to Ezekiel it still remained in full force.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ezekiel/4-15.htm">Ezekiel 4:15</a></div><div class="verse">Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">Cow’s dung.</span>—In the scarcity of fuel in the East, cow’s dung and especially camel’s dung, is dried, and becomes the common fuel.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/ezekiel/4-16.htm">Ezekiel 4:16</a></div><div class="verse">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 astonishment:</div>(16) <span class= "bld">I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem.</span>—In <a href="/context/ezekiel/4-16.htm" title="Moreover he said to 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 astonishment:">Ezekiel 4:16-17</a>, the meaning of the foregoing symbolism is declared in plain language. Bread, as the chief article of food is put for all food, the specific for the general. There shall be extreme suffering and distress, as a part of the punishment for their long-continued sins.<p> <div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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