Ezekiel 4:8

8 Lo! I have (en)compassed thee with bonds, and thou shalt not turn thee from this side into the other side, till thou [ful]fill the days of thy besieging. (Lo! I have surrounded thee with bonds, and thou shalt not turn thyself from one side to the other side, until thou fulfill the days of thy besieging.)

Ezekiel 4:8 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 4:8

And, behold, I will lay hands upon thee
Representing either the besieged, signifying that they should be taken and bound as he was; or rather the besiegers, the Chaldean army, which should be so held by the power and providence of God, that they should not break up the siege until they had taken the city, and fulfilled the whole will and pleasure of God; for these bands were an emblem of the firm and unalterable decree of God, respecting the siege and taking of Jerusalem; and so the Targum paraphrases it,

``and, lo, the decree of my word is upon thee, as a band of ropes;''

and to this sense Jarchi interprets it; and which is confirmed by what follows: and thou shall not turn thee from one side to another till thou hast
ended the days of thy siege;
showing that the Chaldean army should not depart from Jerusalem until it was taken; for though, upon the report of the Egyptian army coming against them, they went forth to meet it; yet they returned to Jerusalem, and never left the siege till the city fell into their hands, according to the purpose and appointment of God. Kimchi that the word for siege is in the plural number, and signifies both the "siege" of Samaria and the siege of Jerusalem; but the former was over many years before this time: by this it appears that the siege of Jerusalem should last three hundred and ninety days; indeed, from the beginning to the end of it, were seventeen months, ( 2 Kings 25:1-4 ) ; but the siege being raised by the army of the king of Egypt for some time, ( Jeremiah 37:5 ) , may reduce it to thirteen months, or thereabout; for three hundred and ninety days are not only intended to signify the years of Israel's sin and wickedness, but also to show how long the city would be besieged; and so long the prophet in this symbolical way was besieging it.

Ezekiel 4:8 In-Context

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.

8 Lo! I have (en)compassed thee with bonds, and thou shalt not turn thee from this side into the other side, till thou [ful]fill the days of thy besieging. (Lo! I have surrounded thee with bonds, and thou shalt not turn thyself from one side to the other side, until thou fulfill the days of thy besieging.)

9 And take thou to thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and fitches; and thou shalt put those into one vessel. And thou shalt make to thee loaves for the number of days, by which thou shalt sleep on thy side; by three hundred and ninety days thou shalt eat it. (And get thou for thyself some wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and vetches; and thou shalt put them into one pot. And thou shalt make loaves for thyself for the number of days by which thou shalt sleep on thy side; for three hundred and ninety days thou shalt eat it.)

10 Forsooth thy meat, which thou shalt eat, shall be in weight twenty staters in a day (And thy food, which thou shalt eat, shall be, by weight, twenty staters a day); from time till to time thou shalt eat it.