Ezekiel 4:3

3 And take for yourself a plate of iron, and you must place it [as] a wall of iron between you and the city, and you must set your face against it, and it must be {under siege}, and you must lay the siege against it; it is a sign for the house of Israel.

Ezekiel 4:3 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 4:3

Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan
Which Kimchi thinks, for its metal, represented the hardness of the hearts of the people of Israel; and, for its colour, the blackness of their sins: though others are of opinion, this being a pan in which things are fried, it may signify the miseries of the Jews in captivity; the roasting of Ahab and Zedekiah in the fire, and particularly the burning of the city: others, the wrath of God against them, and his resolution to destroy them: but rather, since the use of it was as follows, and set it [for] a wall of iron between thee and the city,
it seems to represent all such things as are made use of by besiegers to screen them from the besieged; such as are now used are trenches, parapets, bastions for the prophet in this type is the besieger, representing the Chaldean army secure from the annoyance of those within the walls of the city: and set thy face against it;
with a firm resolution to besiege and take the city; which denotes both the settled wrath of God against this people, and the determined purpose of the king of Babylon not to move from it until he had taken it: and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it;
as an emblem of the army of the Chaldeans besieging it, which is confirmed by the next clause: this [shall be] a sign to the house of Israel;
of the city of Jerusalem being besieged by the Babylonians; this was a sign representing it, and giving them assurance of it.

Ezekiel 4:3 In-Context

1 "Now, son of man, take for yourself a brick, and you must put it {before you}, and you must portray on it a city, Jerusalem.
2 And you must build against it siege works, and you must build against it [a] bulwark, and you must heap against it a siege ramp, and you must set up against it camps and put against it a battering ram all around.
3 And take for yourself a plate of iron, and you must place it [as] a wall of iron between you and the city, and you must set your face against it, and it must be {under siege}, and you must lay the siege against it; it is a sign for the house of Israel.
4 And you, lie down on your left side, and you must put the guilt of the house of Israel on it. You will carry their guilt the number of days that you will lie on it.
5 And I will give to you the years of their guilt according to [the] number of [the] days, three hundred and ninety days, and you must bear the guilt of the house of Israel.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Literally "in the siege"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.