Ezekiel 4:1

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).

Ezekiel 4:1 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 4:1

Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile
Or "brick" ^F26. The Targum renders it, a "stone"; but a tile or brick, especially one that is not dried and burned, but green, is more fit to cut in it the figure of a city. Some think that this was ordered because cities are built of brick; or to show the weakness of the city of Jerusalem, how easily it might be demolished; and Jerom thinks there was some design to lead the Jews to reflect upon their making bricks in Egypt, and their hard service there; though perhaps the truer reason may be, because the Babylonians had been used to write upon tiles. Epigenes ^F1 says they had celestial observations of a long course of years, written on tiles; hence the prophet is bid to describe Jerusalem on one, which was to be destroyed by the king of Babylon; and lay it before thee:
as persons do, who are about to draw a picture, make a portrait, or engrave the form of anything they intend: and portray upon it the city; [even] Jerusalem;
or engrave upon it, by making incisions on it, and so describing the form and figure of the city of Jerusalem.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F26 (hnbl) "laterem", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Polanus. Piscator.
F1 Apud Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 56.

Ezekiel 4:1 In-Context

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.