Ezekiel 4:8

8. To have turned from one side to the other during the continuance of this tableau would have ruined its symbolic reference to Israel and Judah (Ezekiel 4:4; Ezekiel 4:6). It is not stated that he must not rise up from the earth during this long period. The next verse proves that at least occasionally he is expected to get up, not only to attend to necessary duties, but to prepare for other symbolical actions. Every day, however, for one hundred and ninety days the prophet is seen lying upon his left side before the besieged city, “crushed to the ground” under the weight of Israel’s punishment. The more suffering entailed, by his speechlessness and seeming paralysis, the more intensely effective would be the impression produced by it. Many ancient Simeon stylites and modern Indian devotees have depended for their influence chiefly on such a conquest of the physical nature.