Ezekiel Chapter 4
1 "You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem.
2 Lay 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.
3 Take for yourself an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city. Then set your face towards 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.
5 For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred and 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.
7 You shall set your face towards the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it.
8 Behold, 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 and ninety days, you shall eat of it.
10 Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time you shall eat it.
11 You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin. From time to time you shall drink.
12 You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man."
13 The LORD said, "Even thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, amongst the nations where I will drive them."
14 Then I said, "Ah Lord GOD! 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!"
15 Then he said to me, "Behold, I have given you cow's dung for man's dung, and you shall prepare your bread on it."
16 Moreover 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;
17 that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
Footnotes
- Verse 10 (Shekel)
- A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces.
- Verse 11 (Hin)
- A hin is about 6.5 litres or 1.7 gallons.
Version: World English Bible
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Ezekiel Chapter 4 Guide
The second division of the Book contains the messages of the prophet concerning the reprobation of the chosen nation. These fall into three parts. In the first, by symbolism and speech he described the results of reprobation. In the second he declared its reason. In the last he proclaimed its righteousness. The results of reprobation were first symbolically set forth in four signs. These were immediately followed by general denunciations. Finally, the cause of the coming judgment and its process were dealt with at length.
In the present chapter three of the signs are described. The first was a tile on which the prophet was charged to portray a city. Around this he was to depict the process of siege. Having done this, he was to place between himself and the model a flat piece of iron. This sign was intended to foretell the taking of Jerusalem by an army, by the will, and under the direction, of Jehovah, whose representative in the sign Ezekiel was.
The second sign consisted of a posture. For 390 days he was charged to lie on his left side, and for forty days on his right, prophesying against Jerusalem during the whole period. It was a long and tedious process of bearing the iniquity of the house of Israel in the sense of confessing it, and so revealing the reason for the siege and the judgment.
The third sign was the food which he should eat during the period. It was to be of the simplest and scantiest, and cooked in such a way as to indicate uncleanness. The sign was intended to predict the famine and desolation which would accompany the judgment against Jerusalem.
From "An Exposition of the Whole Bible" by G. Campbell Morgan.
Ezekiel Chapter 4 Commentary
Chapter Outline
- The siege of Jerusalem. -- (1-8)
- The famine the inhabitants would suffer. -- (9-17)
Verses 1-8
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.
Verses 9-17
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.
From the "Concise Commentary on the Bible" by Matthew Henry.