Ezekiel 24:4

4 Take thou a beast full fat (Take thou a very fat beast); gather thou together the gobbets thereof into it, each good part, and the hip, and the shoulder, chosen things and full of bones.

Ezekiel 24:4 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 24:4

Gather the pieces thereof into it
fire being made, and the pot set on, and water poured into it, the next thing is, to put in the pieces that are to be boiled; and these are to be gathered; meaning the people of the land, that were to be gathered from the several parts of it, for their security, as they thought; but the event proved it was for their ruin: even every good piece, the thigh and the shoulder;
the princes and gentry, the great and the mighty, the rich and wealthy of the people; who, upon the invasion, got together in Jerusalem, to secure their persons and substance: fill it with the choice bones;
or with those pieces that have the choice bones, that are full of marrow; the strongest among the people; the soldiers, or such as were fit for war; the best of their militia, brought hither to defend the city; but, in fact, to be slain, as they were. The Targum is,

``gather the princes thereof into the midst of her, every terrible man and warrior; fill her with the army of the people.''

Ezekiel 24:4 In-Context

2 Thou, son of man, write to thee the name of this day, in which the king of Babylon is confirmed (in his attack) against Jerusalem today.

3 And thou shalt say by a proverb a parable to the house (of Israel), (the) stirrer to wrath, and thou shalt speak to them, The Lord God saith these things, Set thou a brazen pot, set thou (it) soothly, and put thou water into it. (And thou shalt speak by a parable to the house of Israel, the stirrer, or provoker, to anger, and thou shalt say to them, The Lord God saith these things, Take thou a bronze pot, yea, take thou it, and put thou water into it.)

4 Take thou a beast full fat (Take thou a very fat beast); gather thou together the gobbets thereof into it, each good part, and the hip, and the shoulder, chosen things and full of bones.

5 Also dress thou heaps of bones under it; and the seething thereof boiled out, and the bones thereof were sodden in the midst thereof (and its bones were boiled in its midst).

6 Therefore the Lord God saith these things, Woe to the city of bloods, to the pot whose rust is therein, and the rust thereof went not out of it; cast thou out it by parts, and by his parts; (and the) lot fell not on it. (And so the Lord God saith these things, Woe to the city of bloodshed, to the pot whose rust is in it, and its rust went not out of it; throw thou it out by its parts, and by its parts; and the lot did not fall on it.)