1A ty, lidský synu, vezmi si cihlu. Položíš ji před sebe a vyryješ na ni město Jeruzalém. 2Položíš proti němu obležení, vybuduješ proti němu obléhací val, navršíš proti němu násep a rozmístím proti němu vojska. Postav proti němu okolo válečné berany. 3Ty si pak vezmi železnou pánev. Dáš ji jako železnou stěnu mezi sebe a to město. Zaměříš na něho svou tvář a bude v obležení; oblehneš jej. Je to znamení pro dům izraelský. 4Ty pak ulehni na svůj levý bok. Vložíš na něj zvrácenost domu izraelského. Podle počtu dnů, po který na něm budeš ležet, poneseš jejich zvrácenost. 5Já jsem ti převedl léta jejich zvrácenosti na počet dnů: tři sta devadesát dnů, a poneseš zvrácenost domu izraelského. 6Až tyto dny dovršíš, ulehneš podruhé, a to na pravý bok, a poneseš zvrácenost domu judského čtyřicet dnů: Jeden den za každý rok; vložil jsem ji na tebe. 7Pak zaměříš svou tvář a svou obnaženou paži k obležení Jeruzaléma a budeš proti němu prorokovat. 8Hle, vložil jsem na tebe popruhy a nebudeš se moci převracet z boku na bok, dokud nedovršíš dny svého obléhání. 9Ty si teď vezmi pšenici, ječmen, fazole, čočku, proso a špaldu. Dáš je do jedné nádoby a budeš si z nich dělat pokrm tolik dnů, co budeš ležet na svém boku; budeš jej jíst tři sta devadesát dnů. 10Tvá potrava, kterou budeš jíst, bude na váhu dvacet šekelů na den. Budeš ji jíst po určený čas. 11I vodu budeš pít podle odměrky: šestinu hínu. Budeš pít po určený čas. 12Budeš jíst ječný chléb a budeš jej péci na výkalech lidské nečistoty před jejich očima. 13Nato řekl Hospodin toto: Synové Izraele budou jíst svůj chléb nečistý mezi národy, kam je zaženu. 14I řekl jsem: Ach, Panovníku Hospodine, hle, má duše není poskvrněná. Mršinu či rozsápané zvíře jsem nepojedl od svého mládí až do teď a do mých úst nepřišlo znehodnocené maso. 15Řekl mi tedy: Pohleď, dal jsem ti kravská lejna místo lidských výkalů; svůj chléb budeš péci na nich. 16Dále mi řekl: Lidský synu, hle, zlomím hůl chleba v Jeruzalémě. Budou jíst chléb na váhu a v nepokoji a vodu budou pít podle odměrky a v skleslosti. 17Proto budou mít nedostatek chleba a vody, zděsí se jeden jako druhý a pro svou zvrácenost budou chřadnout.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 SYMBOLICAL VISION OF THE SIEGE AND THE INIQUITY-BEARING. (Eze. 4:1-17)
tile--a sun-dried brick, such as are found in Babylon, covered with cuneiform inscriptions, often two feet long and one foot broad.
2 forth--rather, "watch tower" (
Jer 52:4) wherein the besieges could watch the movements of the besieged [GESENIUS]. A wall of circumvallation [Septuagint and ROSENMULLER]. A kind of battering-ram [MAURER]. The first view is best.
a mount--wherewith the Chaldeans could be defended from missiles.
battering-rams--literally, "through-borers." In
Ezek 21:22 the same Hebrew is translated "captains."
3 iron pan--the divine decree as to the Chaldean army investing the city.
set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city--Ezekiel, in the person of God, represents the wall of separation between him and the people as one of iron: and the Chaldean investing army. His instrument of separating them from him, as one impossible to burst through.
set . . . face against it--inexorably (
Ps 34:16). The exiles envied their brethren remaining in Jerusalem, but exile is better than the straitness of a siege.
4 Another symbolical act performed at the same time as the former, in vision, not in external action, wherein it would have been only puerile: narrated as a thing ideally done, it would make a vivid impression. The second action is supplementary to the first, to bring out more fully the same prophetic idea.
left side--referring to the position of the ten tribes, the northern kingdom, as Judah, the southern, answers to "the right side" (
Ezek 4:6). The Orientals facing the east in their mode, had the north on their left, and the south on their right (
Ezek 16:46). Also the right was more honorable than the left: so Judah as being the seat of the temple, was more so than Israel.
bear the iniquity--iniquity being regarded as a burden; so it means, "bear the punishment of their iniquity" (
Num 14:34). A type of Him who was the great sin-bearer, not in mimic show as Ezekiel, but in reality (
Isa 53:4,
Isa 53:6,
Isa 53:12).
5 three hundred and ninety days--The three hundred ninety years of punishment appointed for Israel, and forty for Judah, cannot refer to the siege of Jerusalem. That siege is referred to in
Ezek 4:1-
Ezek 4:3, and in a sense restricted to the literal siege, but comprehending the whole train of punishment to be inflicted for their sin; therefore we read here merely of its sore pressure, not of its result. The sum of three hundred ninety and forty years is four hundred thirty, a period famous in the history of the covenant-people, being that of their sojourn in Egypt (
Exod 12:40-
Exod 12:41;
Gal 3:17). The forty alludes to the forty years in the wilderness. Elsewhere (
Deut 28:68;
Hos 9:3), God threatened to bring them back to Egypt, which must mean, not Egypt literally, but a bondage as bad as that one in Egypt. So now God will reduce them to a kind of new Egyptian bondage to the world: Israel, the greater transgressor, for a longer period than Judah (compare
Ezek 20:35-
Ezek 20:38). Not the whole of the four hundred thirty years of the Egypt state is appointed to Israel; but this shortened by the forty years of the wilderness sojourn, to imply, that a way is open to their return to life by their having the Egypt state merged into that of the wilderness; that is, by ceasing from idolatry and seeking in their sifting and sore troubles, through God's covenant, a restoration to righteousness and peace [FAIRBAIRN]. The three hundred ninety, in reference to the sin of Israel, was also literally true, being the years from the setting up of the calves by Jeroboam (
1Kgs 12:20-33), that is, from 975 to 583 B.C.: about the year of the Babylonians captivity; and perhaps the forty of Judah refers to that part of Manasseh's fifty-five year's reign in which he had not repented, and which, we are expressly told, was the cause of God's removal of Judah, notwithstanding Josiah's reformation (
1Kgs 21:10-16;
2Kgs 23:26-27).
6 each day for a year--literally, "a day for a year, a day for a year." Twice repeated, to mark more distinctly the reference to
Num 14:34. The picturing of the future under the image of the past, wherein the meaning was far from lying on the surface, was intended to arouse to a less superficial mode of thinking, just as the partial veiling of truth in Jesus' parables was designed to stimulate inquiry; also to remind men that God's dealings in the past are a key to the future, for He moves on the same everlasting principles, the forms alone being transitory.
7 arm . . . uncovered--to be ready for action, which the long Oriental garment usually covered it would prevent (
Isa 52:10).
thou shalt prophesy against it--This gesture of thine will be a tacit prophecy against it.
8 bands-- (
Ezek 3:25).
not turn from . . . side--to imply the impossibility of their being able to shake off the punishment.
9 wheat . . . barley, &c.--Instead of simple flour used for delicate cakes (
Gen 18:6), the Jews should have a coarse mixture of six different kinds of grain, such as the poorest alone would eat.
fitches--spelt or dhourra.
three hundred and ninety--The forty days are omitted, since these latter typify the wilderness period when Israel stood separate from the Gentiles and their pollution, though partially chastened by stint of bread and water (
Ezek 4:16), whereas the eating of the polluted bread in the three hundred ninety days implies a forced residence "among the Gentiles" who were polluted with idolatry (
Ezek 4:13). This last is said of "Israel" primarily, as being the most debased (
Ezek 4:9-
Ezek 4:15); they had spiritually sunk to a level with the heathen, therefore God will make their condition outwardly to correspond. Judah and Jerusalem fare less severely, being less guilty: they are to "eat bread by weight and with care," that is, have a stinted supply and be chastened with the milder discipline of the wilderness period. But Judah also is secondarily referred to in the three hundred ninety days, as having fallen, like Israel, into Gentile defilements; if, then, the Jews are to escape from the exile among Gentiles, which is their just punishment, they must submit again to the wilderness probation (
Ezek 4:16).
10 twenty shekels--that is, little more than ten ounces; a scant measure to sustain life (
Jer 52:6). But it applies not only to the siege, but to their whole subsequent state.
11 sixth . . . of . . . hin--about a pint and a half.
12 dung--as fuel; so the Arabs use beasts' dung, wood fuel being scarce. But to use human dung so implies the most cruel necessity. It was in violation of the law (
Deut 14:3;
Deut 23:12-
Deut 23:14); it must therefore have been done only in vision.
13 Implying that Israel's peculiar distinction was to be abolished and that they were to be outwardly blended with the idolatrous heathen (
Deut 28:68;
Hos 9:3).
14 Ezekiel, as a priest, had been accustomed to the strictest abstinence from everything legally impure. Peter felt the same scruple at a similar command (
Acts 10:14; compare
Isa 65:4). Positive precepts, being dependent on a particular command can be set aside at the will of the divine ruler; but moral precepts are everlasting in their obligation because God cannot be inconsistent with His unchanging moral nature.
abominable flesh--literally, "flesh that stank from putridity." Flesh of animals three days killed was prohibited (
Lev 7:17-
Lev 7:18;
Lev 19:6-
Lev 19:7).
15 cow's dung--a mitigation of the former order (
Ezek 4:12); no longer "the dung of man"; still the bread so baked is "defiled," to imply that, whatever partial abatement there might be for the prophet's sake, the main decree of God, as to the pollution of Israel by exile among Gentiles, is unalterable.
16 staff of bread--bread by which life is supported, as a man's weight is by the staff he leans on (
Lev 26:26;
Ps 105:16;
Isa 3:1).
by weight, and with care--in scant measure (
Ezek 4:10).
17 astonied one with another--mutually regard one another with astonishment: the stupefied look of despairing want.
