The siege and capture of Jerusalem symbolized by Ezekiel
4
📚“Also you, son of man, take a clay tablet, and place it in front of you, and draw the city of Jerusalem on it; 2 📚and lay siege to it, and build siege works against it, and heap up a mound against it. Also set up camps against it, and place battering rams against it all around. 3 📚Moreover take for yourself an iron pan, and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face against it. And it will be under siege, and you will be laying siege to it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel. 4:1-3 In this chapter and the first 4 verses of chapter 5 is the record of how God made Ezekiel an object lesson to the people. Ezekiel acted out what would happen to Jerusalem. The people had refused to believe that the city would be destroyed (Ezek 3:11). Ezekiel’s actions worked impressively with God’s message which begins from Ezek 5:5. For other examples of object lessons see 1 Kings 11:29-31; 2 Kings 13:14-19; Isa 8:3-4, 18; Jer 13:1-7.⚜
4:3 The iron pan with Ezekiel behind it facing Jerusalem probably conveyed the following idea to the people – iron would speak of strength and fixed purpose; Ezekiel the prophet represented God as being opposed to the city and bringing a siege against it.⚜
4 📚“Also, lie down on your left side, and lay the guilt of the house of Israel on it. You shall bear their guilt 📖 for the number of the days that you lie on your side. 5 📚For I have laid on you a number of days in accordance with the years of their guilt, three hundred and ninety days. So you shall bear the guilt of the house of Israel.
6 📚“And when you have completed them, lie down again, on your right side; and you will bear the guilt of the house of Judah forty days. I have appointed to you a day for each year. 7 📚Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and your arm shall be bare 📖, and you shall prophesy against it 📖. 8 📚And, see, I will put ropes on you, and you will not be able to turn yourself from one side to the other, until you have finished the days of your siege.
4:4-8 Israel means here the northern kingdom that separated from Judah after King Solomon’s death (1 Kings 12). Judah means the southern kingdom. From the beginning of the northern kingdom Israel was in rebellion against God and worshiped idols (1 Kings 12:28-30). So the time of their sin is put at 390 years – probably from Jeroboam’s time to Ezekiel’s. The sin of the house of Judah was put at 40 years, possibly because for a long time they did not completely fall away from God. They had some good kings, some times of revival, and maintained at least the outward forms of worship of the true God in His temple.⚜
9 📚“And take for yourself wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in a container, and make bread with them. You shall eat it for as many days as you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days. 10 📚And your food which you will eat is to be by weight, twenty shekels 📖 a day; you shall eat it from time to time. 11 📚You shall also drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin 📖. You shall drink it from time to time.
4:9-11 Ezekiel’s food was to be only that which could be stored for a long time in containers, no fresh vegetables, no meat, and no dairy products. Both his daily food and water were to be taken in rationed, very limited quantities. All this symbolized siege conditions (vs 16,17).⚜
12 📚And you shall eat it like barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with human dung for fuel”.
13 📚And the LORD said, “In this way the children of Israel will eat their defiled food among the Gentiles, where I will drive them”.
4:12-13 Speaks of very severe conditions when normal fuels would not be available.⚜
14 📚Then I said, “Ah Lord God! See, my soul has never been defiled; for from my youth up until now I have not eaten anything which died of itself, or was torn in pieces, and no unclean meat has come into my mouth”.
4:14 Compare Acts 10:14. Ezekiel was a priest (Ezek 1:3), and carefully observed the dietary instructions given in the law of Moses (Leviticus chapter 11).⚜
15 📚Then he said to me, “See, I grant you cow’s dung in place of human dung, and you can prepare your bread over that”.
16 📚Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, see, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem; and they will eat bread by weight, and with care; and they will drink water by measure, and with astonishment, 17 because they will lack bread and water, and be astonished at one another, and consume away because of their guilt 📖.