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Ezekiel Chapter
Four
Ezekiel 4
Chapter Contents
The siege of Jerusalem. (1-8) The famine the inhabitants
would suffer. (9-17)
Commentary on Ezekiel 4:1-8
(Read Ezekiel 4:1-8)
The prophet was to represent the siege of Jerusalem by
signs. He was to lie on his left side for a number of days
supposed to be
equal to the years from the establishment of idolatry. All that the prophet
sets before the children of his people
about the destruction of Jerusalem
is
to show that sin is the provoking cause of the ruin of that once flourishing
city.
Commentary on Ezekiel 4:9-17
(Read Ezekiel 4:9-17)
The bread which was Ezekiel's support
was to be made of
coarse grain and pulse mixed together
seldom used except in times of urgent
scarcity
and of this he was only to take a small quantity. Thus was figured
the extremity to which the Jews were to be reduced during the siege and
captivity. Ezekiel does not plead
Lord
from my youth I have been brought up
delicately
and never used to any thing like this; but that he had been brought
up conscientiously
and never had eaten any thing forbidden by the law. It will
be comfortable when we are brought to suffer hardships
if our hearts can
witness that we have always been careful to keep even from the appearance of
evil. See what woful work sin makes
and acknowledge the righteousness of God
herein. Their plenty having been abused to luxury and excess
they were justly
punished by famine. When men serve not God with cheerfulness in the abundance of
all things
God will make them serve their enemies in the want of all things.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ezekiel》
Ezekiel 4
Verse 1
[1] Thou also
son of man
take thee a tile
and lay it
before thee
and pourtray upon it the city
even Jerusalem:
Portray — Draw a map of Jerusalem.
Verse 2
[2] And lay siege against it
and build a fort against it
and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it
and set battering
rams against it round about.
Lay siege — Draw the figure of a siege about
the city.
Build — Raise a tower and bulwarks.
Verse 3
[3] Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan
and set it for
a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it
and it
shall be besieged
and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to
the house of Israel.
A wall — That it may resemble a wall of iron
for as
impregnable as such a wall
shall the resolution and patience of the Chaldeans
be.
Verse 4
[4] Lie thou also upon thy left side
and lay the iniquity
of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou
shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.
Lay — Take upon thee the representation of their guilt and
punishment.
House of Israel — The ten tribes.
The number — By this thou shalt intimate how
long I have borne with their sins
and how long they shall bear their
punishment.
Verse 5
[5] For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity
according to the number of the days
three hundred and ninety days: so shalt
thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
I have laid — I have pointed out the number of
years wherein apostate Israel sinned against me
and I did bear with them.
Years — These years probably began at Solomon's falling to
idolatry
in the twenty-seventh year of his reign
and ended in the fifth of
Zedekiah's captivity.
Verse 6
[6] And when thou hast accomplished them
lie again on thy
right side
and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days:
I have appointed thee each day for a year.
Accomplished — That is
almost accomplished.
House of Judah — Of the two tribes.
Forty days — Probably from Josiah's renewing
the covenant
until the destruction of the temple
during which time God
deferred to punish
expecting whether they would keep their covenant
or retain
their idolatries
which latter they did for thirteen years of Josiah's reign
for eleven of Jehoiakim's
and eleven of Zedekiah's reign
and five of his
captivity
which amount to just forty years. But all this was done in a vision.
Verse 7
[7] Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of
Jerusalem
and thine arm shall be uncovered
and thou shalt prophesy against
it.
Set — While thou liest on thy side thou shalt fix thy
countenance on the portrait of besieged Jerusalem.
Uncovered — Naked and stretched out as being
ready to strike.
Verse 8
[8] And
behold
I will lay bands upon thee
and thou shalt
not turn thee from one side to another
till thou hast ended the days of thy
siege.
Bands — An invisible restraint assuring him
that those could
no more remove from the siege
than he from that side he lay on.
Verse 9
[9] Take thou also unto thee wheat
and barley
and beans
and lentiles
and millet
and fitches
and put them in one vessel
and make
thee bread thereof
according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie
upon thy side
three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.
Take — Provide thee corn enough: for a grievous famine will
accompany the siege.
Wheat — All sorts of grain are to be provided
and all will be
little enough.
One vessel — Mix the worst with the best to
lengthen out the provision.
Verse 10
[10] And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight
twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.
By weight — Not as much as you will
but a
small pittance delivered by weight to all.
Twenty shekels — Ten ounces: scarce enough to maintain
life.
From time to time — At set hours this was
weighed out.
Verse 11
[11] Thou shalt drink also water by measure
the sixth part
of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.
The sixth part — About six ounces.
Verse 12
[12] And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes
and thou shalt
bake it with dung that cometh out of man
in their sight.
As barley cakes — Because they never had enough to
make a loaf with
they eat them as barley cakes.
With dung — There was no wood left
nor yet
dung of other creatures. This also was represented in a vision.
Verse 17
[17] That they may want bread and water
and be astonied one
with another
and consume away for their iniquity.
May want — So because they served not God with chearfulness in
the abundance of all things
He made them serve their enemies in the want of
all things.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ezekiel》
04 Chapter 4
Verses 1-17
Verses 1-8
Take thee a tile.
The ministry of symbolism
In this chapter there begins a series of symbols utterly
impossible of modern interpretation. This ministry of symbolism has still a
place in all progressive civilisation. Every age
of course
necessitates its
own emblems and types
its own apocalypse of wonders and signs
but the meaning
of the whole is that God has yet something to be revealed which cannot at the
moment be expressed in plain language. If we could see into the inner meaning
of many of the controversies in which we are engaged
we should see there many
a divinely drawn symbol
curious outlines of thought
parables not yet ripe
enough for words. How manifold is human life! How innumerable are the workers
who are toiling at the evolution of the Divine purpose in things! One man can
understand nothing but what he calls bare facts and hard realities; he has only
a hand to handle
he has not the interior touch that can feel things ere yet
they have taken shape. Another is always on the outlook for what pleases the
eye; he delights in form and colour and symmetry
and glows almost with
thankfulness as he beholds the shapeliness of things
and traces in them a
subtle geometry. Another man gets behind all this
and hears voices
and sees
sights excluded from the natural senses; he looks upon symbolism
upon the
ministry of suggestion and dream and vision; he sees best in the darkness; the
night is his day; in the great cloud he sees the ever-working God
and in the
infinite stillness of religious solitude he hears
rather in echoes than in
words
what he is called upon to tell the age in which he lives. Here again his
difficulty increases
for although he can see with perfect plainness men
and
can understand quite intelligibly all the mysteries which pass before his
imagination and before his spiritual eyes
yet he has to find words that will
fit the new and exciting occasion; and there are no fit words
so sometimes he
is driven to make a language of his own
and hence we come upon strangeness of
expression
eccentricity of thought
weirdness in quest and sympathy
--a most
marvellous and tumultuous life; a great struggle after rhythm and rest
and
fullest disclosure of inner realities
often ending in bitter disappointment
so that the prophet’s eloquence dissolves in tears
and the man who thought he
had a glorious message to deliver is broken down in humiliation when he hears
the poor thunder of his own inadequate articulation. He has his “tile” and his
iron pan; he lays upon his left side
and upon his right side; he takes unto
him wheat and barley
beans
and lentils; he weighs out his bread
and measures
out his water
and bakes “barley cakes” by a curious manufacture; and yet when
it is all over he cannot tell to others in delicate enough language
or with
sufficiency of illustration
what he knows to be a Divine and eternal word. (J.
Parker
D. D.)
Symbolisms not necessarily acted
Even if one hundred and ninety days be the true reading
it is
most improbable that the prophet should have been on his side immovable for
half a year
and it appears impossible when other actions had to be done
simultaneously. The hypothesis of Klostermann hardly deserves mention. This
writer supposes that the prophet lay on his side because he was a cataleptic
and temporarily paralysed
that he prophesied against Jerusalem with
outstretched arm
because his arm could not be withdrawn
being convulsively
rigid
and that he was dumb because struck with morbid “alalia.” It is
surprising that some reputable scholars should seem half inclined to accept
this explanation. They perhaps have the feeling that such an interpretation is
more reverent to Scripture. But we need to remind ourselves
as Job reminded
his friends
that superstition is not religion (Job 13:7-12; Job 21:22). The book itself appears to
teach us how to interpret the most of the symbolical actions. In Ezekiel 24:3 the symbol of setting the
caldron on the fire is called uttering a parable. The act of graving a hand at
the parting of the ways (Ezekiel 21:19) must certainly be
interpreted in the same way
and
though there may be room for hesitation in
regard to some of them
probably the actions as a whole. They were imagined
merely. They passed through the prophet’s mind. He lived in this ideal sphere;
he went through the actions in his phantasy
and they appeared to him to carry
the same effects as if they had been performed. (A. B. Davidson
D. D.)
Pertray upon it the city
even Jerusalem.--
The end foretold
With the fourth chapter we enter on the exposition of the first
great division of Ezekiel’s prophecies. The prophecies may be classified
roughly under three heads. In the first class are those which exhibit the
judgment itself in ways fitted to impress the prophet and his hearers with a
conviction of its certainty; a second class is intended to demolish the illusions
and false ideals which possessed the minds of the Israelites and made the
announcement of disaster incredible; and a third and very important class
expounds the moral principles which were illustrated by the judgment
and which
show it to be a Divine necessity. In the passage before us the bare fact and
certainty of the judgment are set forth in word and symbol and with a minimum
of commentary
although even here the conception which Ezekiel had formed of
the moral situation is clearly discernible. That the destruction of Jerusalem
should occupy the first place in the prophet’s picture of national calamity
requires no explanation. Jerusalem was the heart and brain of the nation
the
centre of its life and its religion
and in the eyes of the prophets the
fountainhead of its sin. The strength of her natural situation
the patriotic
and religious associations which had gathered round her
and the smallness of
her subject province gave to Jerusalem a unique position among the mother
cities of antiquity. And Ezekiel’s hearers knew what he meant when he employed
the picture of a beleaguered city to set forth the judgment that was to
overtake them. That crowning horror of ancient warfare
the siege of a
fortified town
meant in this case something more appalling to the imagination
than the ravages of pestilence and famine and sword. The fate of Jerusalem
represented the disappearance of everything that had constituted the glory and
excellence of Israel’s national existence. The manner in which the prophet seeks
to impress this fact on his countrymen illustrates a peculiar vein of realism
which runs through all his thinking (verses 1-3). He is commanded to take a
brick and portray upon it a walled city
surrounded by the towers
mounds
and
battering rams which marked the usual operations of a besieging army. Then he
is to erect a plate of iron between him and the city
and from behind this
with menacing gestures
he is as it were to press on the siege. The meaning of
the symbols is obvious. As the engines of destruction appear on Ezekiel’s
diagram
at the bidding of Jehovah
so in due time the Chaldaean army will be
seen from the walls of Jerusalem
led by the same unseen Power which now
controls the acts of the prophet. In the last act Ezekiel exhibits the attitude
of Jehovah Himself
cut off from His people by the iron wall of an inexorable
purpose which no prayer could penetrate. Thus far the prophet’s actions
however strange they may appear to us
have been simple and intelligible. But
at this point a second sign is as it were superimposed on the first
in order
to symbolise an entirely different set of facts--the hardship and duration of
the Exile (verses 4-8). While still engaged in prosecuting the siege of the
city
the prophet is supposed to become at the same time the representative of
the guilty people and the victim of the Divine judgment. He is to “bear their
iniquity”--that is
the punishment due to their sin. This is represented by his
lying bound on his left side for a number of days equal to the years of
Ephraim’s banishment
and then on his right side for a time proportionate to
the captivity of Judah. (John Skinner
M. A.)
Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread.
Conformity of punishment to sin
They had sinned in excess
and God would take away their plenty. Hosea 13:6
“According to their pasture
so were they filled”; they had full pastures
fed largely
exalted their
hearts
and thought they should never want; they forgot God in their fulness
and He made them to remember Him in a famine. Fulness of bread was the sin of
Sodom
and the sin of Jerusalem also. God brake the staff of bread. They sinned
in defiling themselves with idols
and offered meal and oil
honey and flour
for a sweet savour to their idols (Ezekiel 16:1-63)
and now they must eat
polluted bread among the Gentiles. (W. Greenhill
M. A.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》