Ezekiel 4:1-8

The Symbol of the Siege

v. 1. Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, very likely a Babylonian brick, a foot square and about five inches thick, and lay it before thee, while the clay was still soft, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem, drawing the map of the Jewish capital with the usual pencil, or style,

v. 2. and lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, very likely a watch-tower or bulwark, which permitted the invading army to observe every movement of the besieged, and cast a mount against it, the usual earthworks with their trenches; set the camp also against it, to surround the city on all sides, and set battering-rams against it round about, the latter being logs of hard wood, with heads of wrought iron. All this was to be shown in the sketch prepared by the prophet, the map thus emphasizing the fact that Jerusalem would be besieged.

v. 3. Moreover, take thou unto thee an iron pan, such as were used in Jewish households, as well as in the Temple, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city, as representing the divine decree regarding the Chaldean invasion; and set thy face against it, in stern opposition, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel, to the people of God, formerly identical with the covenant nation.

v. 4. Lie thou also upon thy left side, in another symbolical act, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it, like a sickness which causes the diseased person to lie in one position without shifting; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity, not in a vicarious, but in a symbolical act.

v. 5. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, that Ezekiel was, figuratively, bearing their guilt, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days, a number of years which may refer to the time of the Egyptian bondage, or as simply strokes of divine chastisement; so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

v. 6. And when thou hast accomplished them, having fulfilled the three hundred and ninety days typical of the bearing of Israel's burden, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days, a number which may refer to various periods in the history of the people or, as some think, to the last forty years of the Egyptian bondage, which were at the same time the years which gave Moses his test for leadership; I have appointed thee each day for a year, that is, one day of the symbolical act stood for a whole year in the actual history to which it referred.

v. 7. Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, which was always before the prophet in the sketch which he had drawn, and thine arm, namely, the free arm in either case, shall be uncovered, bare to the shoulder, to have free use of it at all times, and thou shalt prophesy against it, both by his symbolical acting and by proclaiming the Lord's message.

v. 8. And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, holding him down, causing him to hold out with patience in the difficult feat proposed, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, to relieve the tediousness of lying on one side alone, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege, the fulfilling of the time indicating the conquest of the city. No matter in what way God makes known His will, the outstanding fact is that it will certainly be fulfilled, for not one of his words may fail.