Ezekiel 4

Ezekiel 4:1-17 . SYMBOLICAL VISION OF THE SIEGE AND THE INIQUITY-BEARING.

1. tile--a sun-dried brick, such as are found in Babylon, covered with cuneiform inscriptions, often two feet long and one foot broad.

2. forth--rather, "watch tower" ( Jeremiah 52:4 ) wherein the besieges could watch the movements of the besieged [GESENIUS]. A wall of circumvallation [Septuagint and ROSENMULLER]. A kind of battering-ram [MAURER]. The first view is best.
a mount--wherewith the Chaldeans could be defended from missiles.
battering-rams--literally, "through-borers." In Ezekiel 21:22 the same Hebrew is translated "captains."

3. iron pan--the divine decree as to the Chaldean army investing the city.
set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city--Ezekiel, in the person of God, represents the wall of separation between him and the people as one of iron: and the Chaldean investing army. His instrument of separating them from him, as one impossible to burst through.
set . . . face against it--inexorably ( Psalms 34:16 ). The exiles envied their brethren remaining in Jerusalem, but exile is better than the straitness of a siege.

4. Another symbolical act performed at the same time as the former, in vision, not in external action, wherein it would have been only puerile: narrated as a thing ideally done, it would make a vivid impression. The second action is supplementary to the first, to bring out more fully the same prophetic idea.
left side--referring to the position of the ten tribes, the northern kingdom, as Judah, the southern, answers to "the right side" ( Ezekiel 4:6 ). The Orientals facing the east in their mode, had the north on their left, and the south on their right ( Ezekiel 16:46 ). Also the right was more honorable than the left: so Judah as being the seat of the temple, was more so than Israel.
bear the iniquity--iniquity being regarded as a burden; so it means, "bear the punishment of their iniquity" ( Numbers 14:34 ). A type of Him who was the great sin-bearer, not in mimic show as Ezekiel, but in reality ( Isaiah 53:4 Isaiah 53:6 Isaiah 53:12 ).