Ezekiel 4

1 "As for you, human being, take a clay slab, lay it down in front of you, and draw on it the city of Yerushalayim.

2 Show it under siege - build towers against it, raise earthworks against it, set up camps against it, and surround it with battering rams.

3 Then take an iron griddle and put it in place as a wall of iron between yourself and the city, and fix your gaze on it - the city is under siege, and you are the one besieging it. This will be a sign for the house of Isra'el.

4 "Next, you are to lie on your left side, and have it bear the guilt of the house of Isra'el - for as many days as you lie on your side, you will bear their guilt.

5 For I am assigning you one day for each year of their guilt; thus you are to bear the guilt of the house of Isra'el for 390 days.

6 Then, when you have finished that, you are to lie on your right side and bear the guilt of the house of Y'hudah for forty days, each day corresponding to a year; this is what I am assigning you.

7 You are to fix your gaze on the siege of Yerushalayim, and, with your arm bared, prophesy against it.

8 I am tying you down with ropes, and you are not to turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

9 "Take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and buckwheat; put them together in one bowl; and make bread from it. For as long as you lie on your side, 390 days, this is what you are to eat.

10 Each day the food you eat must weigh only three-quarters of a pound; you may eat it from time to time [during the day].

11 You are also to drink a limited amount of water, two-thirds of a quart; you may drink it from time to time [during the day].

12 [The bread] you eat is to be baked like barley cakes; you are to bake it before their eyes, using human dung as fuel."

13 ADONAI said, "This is how the people of Isra'el will eat their food - unclean - in the nations where I am driving them."

14 I objected: "No, Adonai ELOHIM! I have never defiled myself - from my youth until now I have never eaten anything that died by itself or was killed by wild animals; no such disgusting food has ever entered my mouth."

15 He answered, "All right, I will give you cow dung to use instead of human dung, and you can prepare your bread on it."

16 He then said to me, "Human being, I am going to cut off the supply of bread in Yerushalayim, so that they will anxiously weigh out bread to eat, and, horrified, ration water to drink.

17 Finally, due to lack of bread and water, they will stare at each other in shock, wasting away because of their guilt."

Ezekiel 4 Commentary

Chapter 4

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.

Chapter Summary

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.