Ezekiel4
World English Bible · Public Domain
1“You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem.
2Lay siege against it, build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it. Also set camps against it and plant battering rams against it all around.
3Take for yourself an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city. Then set your face toward it. It will be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
4“Moreover lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. According to the number of the days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.
5For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
6“Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have appointed forty days, each day for a year, to you.
7You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it.
8Behold, I put ropes on you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your siege.
9“Take for yourself also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel. Make bread of it. According to the number of the days that you will lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it.
10Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time you shall eat it.
11You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin. From time to time you shall drink.
12You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.”
13Yahweh said, “Even thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.”
14Then I said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals. No abominable meat has come into my mouth!”
15Then he said to me, “Behold, I have given you cow’s dung for man’s dung, and you shall prepare your bread on it.”
16Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness. They will drink water by measure, and in dismay;
17that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Ezekiel 4.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The siege of Jerusalem. (1-8). The famine the inhabitants would suffer. (9-17).
vv1-8
The prophet was to represent the siege of Jerusalem by signs. He was to lie on his left side for a number of days, supposed to be equal to the years from the establishment of idolatry. All that the prophet sets before the children of his people, about the destruction of Jerusalem, is to show that sin is the provoking cause of the ruin of that once flourishing city.
vv9-17
The bread which was Ezekiel's support, was to be made of coarse grain and pulse mixed together, seldom used except in times of urgent scarcity, and of this he was only to take a small quantity. Thus was figured the extremity to which the Jews were to be reduced during the siege and captivity. Ezekiel does not plead, Lord, from my youth I have been brought up delicately, and never used to any thing like this; but that he had been brought up conscientiously, and never had eaten any thing forbidden by the law. It will be comfortable when we are brought to suffer hardships, if our hearts can witness that we have always been careful to keep even from the appearance of evil. See what woful work sin makes, and acknowledge the righteousness of God herein. Their plenty having been abused to luxury and excess, they were justly punished by famine. When men serve not God with cheerfulness in the abundance of all things, God will make them serve their enemies in the want of all things.
Key Words
אַתָּה: thou and thee, or (plural) ye and you
בֵּן: a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etc., (like father or brother), etc.)
אָדָם: ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species, mankind, etc.)
לָקַח: to take (in the widest variety of applications)
לְבֵנָה: a brick (from the whiteness of the clay)
נָתַן: to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etc.)
פָּנִים: the face (as the part that turns); used in a great variety of applications (literally and figuratively); also (with prepositional prefix) as a preposition (before, etc.)
חָקַק: properly, to hack, i.e. engrave (Judges 5:14, to be a scribe simply); by implication, to enact (laws being cut in stone or metal tablets in primitive times) or (gen.) prescribe
עַל: above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applications
עִיר: a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)
Cross References
Ezekiel 4Explicit biblical precedent for the 'each day for a year' prophetic principle.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Ezekiel's symbolic 'bearing of iniquity' prefigures the ultimate sin-bearer, Jesus Christ.
Supported by JFB
Peter's protest against unclean food mirrors Ezekiel's conscientious plea using almost identical language.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Fulfills the Levitical covenant curse of breaking the 'staff of bread' and eating by weight.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
The 'uncovered arm' signifies God baring His holy arm, ready for active judgment.
Supported by JFB
Connects to the earlier divine restriction where 'bands' were figuratively laid on the prophet.
Supported by JFB
Hosea's matching prediction that Israel would eat unclean, defiled food in exile among Gentiles.
Supported by JFB
Calvin highlights that man lives by God's word, not by bread alone, when the staff is broken.
Supported by John Calvin
The actual historical fulfillment of Nebuchadnezzar's building watch-towers and forts against Jerusalem.
Supported by JFB
Law forbidding eating meat torn by beasts, which Ezekiel appeals to as kept from youth.
Supported by Matthew Henry
The legal prohibition against eating anything that dieth of itself, guarding priestly purity.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Levitical law designating stale sacrificial meat as an abomination, which Ezekiel avoided.
Supported by Matthew Henry
The covenant curse of 'consuming away in their iniquity' due to their persistent unfaithfulness.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Demonstrates God's pattern of using prophets to act out symbolic visions and physical parables.
Priestly duty to 'bear the iniquity' of the congregation, aligning with Ezekiel's priestly background.
Poole links Israel's 390 years of apostasy to Jeroboam's establishment of the calf cult.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Repeats the judgment that Jerusalem will eat bread and drink water with astonishment and care.
Parallels the use of 'battering rams' or captains directed against Jerusalem's gates.
Supported by JFB