Yechezkel 4:2

2 And lay matzor (siege) against it, and erect against it siege works, and build a ramp against it; set the machanot also against it, and set battering rams against it all around.

Yechezkel 4:2 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 4:2

And lay siege against it
In his own person, as in ( Ezekiel 4:3 ) ; or draw the form of a siege, or figure of an army besieging a city; or rather of the instruments and means used in a siege, as follows: and build a fort against it:
Kimchi interprets it a wooden tower, built over against the city, to subdue it; Jarchi takes it to be an instrument by which stones were cast into the city; and so the Arabic version renders it, "machines to cast stones"; the Targum, a fortress; so Nebuchadnezzar in reality did what was here only done in type, ( 2 Kings 25:1 ) ; where the same word is used as here: and cast a mount about it;
a heap of earth cast up, in order to look into the city, cast in darts, and mount the walls; what the French call "bastion", as Jarchi observes: set the camp also against it;
place the army in their tents about it: and set [battering] rams against it round about;
a warlike instrument, that had an iron head, and horns like a ram, with which in a siege the walls of a city were battered and beaten down. Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, interpret the word of princes and generals of the army, who watched at the several corners of the city, that none might go in and out; so the Targum seems to understand it F2. The Arabic version is, "mounts to cast darts"; (See Gill on Ezekiel 21:22).


FOOTNOTES:

F2 So R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 50. 9.

Yechezkel 4:2 In-Context

1 Thou also, Ben Adam, take thee a levenah (tile, brick), and lay it before thee, and engrave upon it the Ir, even Yerushalayim;
2 And lay matzor (siege) against it, and erect against it siege works, and build a ramp against it; set the machanot also against it, and set battering rams against it all around.
3 Moreover take thou unto thee a machavat barzel (iron griddle), and set it for a kir barzel (wall of iron) between thee and the Ir; and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be an ot (sign) to Bais Yisroel.
4 Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the avon Bais Yisroel upon it; according to the mispar of the yamim that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their avon.
5 For I have laid upon thee the shanim of their avon (iniquity), according to the mispar (number) of the yamim, three hundred and ninety days; so shalt thou bear the avon Bais Yisroel.
The Orthodox Jewish Bible fourth edition, OJB. Copyright 2002,2003,2008,2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International. All rights reserved.