Ezekiel 4

Chap. IV. Ver. 1—17. The sin of Jerusalem foretold by as well as by words; thus Ezekiel delineates Jerusalem [upon a large tile] and [in the same manner] lays siege to it, as a type of the manner in which the Chaldean army should surround that city. The number of days which the Prophet was to lie on his side, probably during part of each day, denoted— First, The number of years which God bore with the idolatrous practices of the ten tribes; there being just 390 years from the time of Jeroboam’s setting up the calves in Dan and Bethel, to the migration of the last gleanings of those tribes in the captivity of Zedekiah. 2dly, The number of years he bore with the excessive sins of Judah, under the forty years of Manasseh’s evil reign, or the forty years from the solemn league [or covenant] of Josiah, to the destruction of Jerusalem.

And 3dly, The duration of the siege, which was to last a day for every year they had sinned. It appears, indeed, (from (2 Kings 25:1-4).) that there were seventeen months from the beginning to the end of the siege; but as it was raised for some time, in order to intercept the forces of the Egyptians ((Jeremiah 37:5),) this intermission probably reduced it to stock months, or 390 days.—Thus God takes account of all our sins, and thus he numbers all our days.—According to Jerome, both the 390 and the 40 days were typical of the duration of the captivities of Israel and Judah.—“The scant provision allowed the Prophet during his symbolical siege, (being only about ten ounces of bread,) consisting chiefly of the worst kinds of grain, and that ill prepared, all tended to denote the scarcity of provision, fuel, and every necessary of life, which the Jews should experience during the siege of Jerusalem.—The scarcity of fuel in the East is often supplied by the dung of animals dried, which is used even in preparing victuals.”—Dr. J. Smith.

Notes on the verses

Chap. IV. Ver. 1. A tile.—The bricks and tiles of the East, being generally only dried in the sun, are nearly white, and sometimes painted, though not glazed, a little similar to our Dutch tiles of the last century. Babylonian bricks, with the cruciform (or wedgelike) character, are in existence to the present day. See Orient. Lit. No. 1005. Also, Taylor’s Calmet, plate to Gen. Chap. xi—[{Levainah, generally denotes a brick, and Palladius informs us that the bricks in common use among the ancients were “two feet long, one foot broad, and four inches thick;” and on such a surface the whole siege might be easily portrayed. Perhaps, however, it may here denote a flat tile, like a Roman brick, which were commonly used for tablets, as we learn from Pliny, Hist. Nat. |. vii. c¢. 57.}—Bagster. Ver. 3. An iron pan.—See margin. Probably such as cakes were baked on. This might represent the outer wall of the city, against which he was directed to set his face, as if he were an enemy, and to besiege it. See Newcome. Ver. 4. Lie thou upon thy left side.—This lying upon first one side and then the other, could not, we may naturally suppose, refer to his rest at night, for the house of Israel were not likely to witness this; but, as it was customary for all that could get the opportunity, to take rest in the middle of the day, especially during the hot season: if he thus retired under the shade of a tree, or a tent, many would be likely to notice it in him, as a public character.

Say the punishment.—That is, ‘Declare that you thus represent the punishment.” Ver. 5. Three hundred and ninety days.—See note in the margin.—[This number of years will take us back from the year in which Judea was finally desolated by Nebuzaradan, B. C. 575, to the establishment of idolatry in Israel by Jeroboam, B. C. 584.]—Bagster. Ver. 6. Forty days.—{Beginning from (2 Kings 23:3, 23).; ending (Jeremiah 52:30). This represented the forty years during which gross idolatry prevailed in Judah, from the reformation of Josiah, B. C. 624, to the same final desolation of the land. Some think that the period of 390 days also predicts the duration of the siege by the Babylonians, (ver. 9,) deducting from it five months and twenty-nine days, when the besiegers went to meet the Egyptians, ((2 Kings 25:1-4). (Jeremiah 37:5).) and that forty days may have been employed in desolating the temple and city.]—Bagster. Ver. 7. Thine arm uncovered.—Harmer thinks this might be to show the bruises he had given himself, as emblems of the effects of war: but “to make bare the arm,” in Scripture, implies rather the exertion of strength; (Isaiah 52:10). He was to prophesy, as it were, with all his might, and, as Bishop Chandler thinks, with his arm extended toward Jerusalem. Ver. 8. I will lay hands.—That is, I will order thee to be bound. See (Ezekiel 3:25). From one side to another.—Or rather, “the other;” “From thy side to thy side;" or, as we say, “from side to side.” Ver. 9. Millet,—[Dochan, in Arabic dokhn, the Hebrew dochna of Forskal, is a kind of millet of considerable use as food; the cultivation of which is described by Browne.]—Bagster.—Fitches.—See margin. An inferior kind of grain: all these ingredients were to form a coarse kind of bread.—Kussemim, is doubtless spelt as Aquila and Symmachus render here; and so LXX. and Theodotion. In times of scarcity it is customary to mix several kinds of coarser grain with the finer, to make it last the longer.]—Bagster. Ver. 10. Twenty shekels.—‘Not ten ounces.”’ Newcome. Ver. 11. Water… the sixth part of a hin.—Little more than a pint and a half. These measures denote great scarcity. Ver. 12. ‘Thou shalt bake, &c.—Newcome, ‘With dung, that cometh out of man, shalt thou bake it in their sight.”’

The usual fuel in the East, is the dried dung of cattle and camels; but Sandys (the traveller) mentions that the lowest classes in Egypt use human dung to bake with. See Orient. Lit. No. 1007, 1008.—[Dried cow-dung is a common fuel in the East, as it is in many parts of England, to the present day; but the prophet was ordered to prepare his bread with human ordure, to show the extreme degree of wretchedness to which the besieged should be exposed, as they would be obliged literally to use it, from not being able to leave the city to collect other fuel.]—B- Ver. 16. The staff of bread.—Bread is commonly called the staff of life.—By weight and by measure.—(The prophet was allowed each day only twenty shekels weight, or about ten ounces, of the coarse food he had prepared, and the sixth part of a hin, scarcely a pint and a half of water; all of which was intended to show, that they should be obliged to eat the meanest and coarsest food, and that by weight, and their water by measure.)—Bagster.