Ezekiel 4:1-7

1 And thou, son of man, take to thee a tilestone; and thou shalt set it before thee, and thou shalt describe therein the city of Jerusalem (and thou shalt draw upon it the city of Jerusalem).

2 And thou shalt ordain besieging against that Jerusalem; and thou shalt build strongholds, and thou shalt bear together [an heap of] earth, and thou shalt give hosts of battle against it, and thou shalt set engines by compass (and thou shalt set up battering rams all around it).

3 And take thou to thee an iron frying pan; and thou shalt set it into an iron wall betwixt thee and betwixt the city; and thou shalt set steadfastly thy face to it, and it shall be into besieging, and thou shalt (en)compass it; it is a sign to the house of Israel. (And take thou thee an iron frying pan; and thou shalt set it there like an iron wall between thee and the city; and thou shalt steadfastly set thy face toward the city, and it shall be into besieging, and so thou shalt surround, or besiege, it; this shall be a sign to the house of Israel.)

4 And thou shalt sleep on thy left side, and thou shalt put the wickednesses of the house of Israel on that side; in the number of days in which thou shalt sleep on that side, and thou shalt take the wickedness of them (for the number of days in which thou shalt sleep on that side, thou shalt bear their wickedness).

5 Forsooth I gave to thee the years of the wickedness of them by (the) number of days, three hundred and ninety days; and thou shalt bear the wickedness of the house of Israel.

6 And when thou hast [ful]filled these things, thou shalt sleep the second time on thy right side. And thou shalt take the wickedness of the house of Judah by forty days; I gave to thee a day for a year, a day soothly for a year (And thou shalt bear the wickedness of the house of Judah for forty days; I shall give thee a day for a year, truly a day for a year).

7 And thou shalt turn thy face to the besieging of Jerusalem; and thine arm shall be stretched forth, and thou shalt prophesy against it.

Ezekiel 4:1-7 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 4

This chapter contains a prophecy of the siege of Jerusalem, and of the famine that attended it. The siege is described by a portrait of the city of Jerusalem on a tile, laid before the prophet, Eze 4:1; by each of the actions, representing a siege of it, as building a fort, casting a mount, and setting a camp and battering rams against it, and an iron pan for a wall, between the prophet, the besieger, and the city, Eze 4:2,3; by his gesture, lying first on his left side for the space of three hundred ninety days, and then on his right side for the space of forty days, pointing at the time when the city should be taken, Eze 4:4-6; and by setting his face to the siege, and uncovering his arm, and prophesying, Eze 4:7; and by bands being laid on him, so that he could not turn from one side to the other, till the siege was ended, Eze 4:8; the famine is signified by bread the prophet was to make of various sorts of grain and seeds, baked with men's dung, and eaten by weight, with water drank by measure, which is applied unto the people; it is suggested that this would be fulfilled by the children of Israel's eating defiled bread among the Gentiles, Eze 4:9-13; but upon the prophet's concern about eating anything forbidden by the law, which he had never done, cow's dung is allowed instead of men's, to prepare the bread with, Eze 4:14,15; and the chapter is concluded with a resolution to bring a severe famine on them, to their great astonishment, and with which they should be consumed for their iniquity, Eze 4:16,17.