“And you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you, and engrave on it a city, even Jerusalem. 2 And put siege works against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it. Set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around. 3 And you, take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; and set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.
4 “Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment. 5 For I assign to you a number of days, 390 days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment. So long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel. 6 And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah. Forty days I assign you, a day for each year. 7 And you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against the city. 8 And behold, I will place cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, till you have completed the days of your siege.
9 “And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer, and put them into a single vessel and make your bread from them. During the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days, you shall eat it. 10 And your food that you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from day to day you shall eat it. 11 And water you shall drink by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from day to day you shall drink. 12 And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.” 13 And the Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.” 14 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up till now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has tainted meat come into my mouth.” 15 Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.” 16 Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay. 17 I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and look at one another in dismay, and rot away because of their punishment. Ezekiel 4 ESV
Ezekiel 4 The Sign of Jerusalem's Siege
1-3. Take a brick and lay it before you - These were made of clay, and here he will use one to model the siege of Jerusalem.
“The practice of sketching a city plan on a clay brick is confirmed by several exemplars discovered by archeologists. One of these represents a 2nd-millennium plan of the city of Nippur, the predecessor of the very city in the vicinity of which the exiles were settled.” (Block)
This is a sign for the house of Israel - Ezekiel is in exile in Babylon, and back home in Jerusalem they are resisting Babylonian rule. God has decided against this city because of it's sin, yet it has not been completely torn down, nor has the temple been destroyed at this time. There are still false prophets who are declaring to the exiles that Jerusalem will not be taken and that the exile will be over in a short time. God is telling Ezekiel to build a scale model of the city on a clay tablet and the figures representing the siege.
4-7. Then lie on your left side - Many commentators believe that this was done at a certain time every day, not all day, but that he acted this out before the people as a sign. This would be quite a spectacle, and people would begin to talk, just as in the days of Noah, who is this idiot building this massive boat where there is no body of water to float it? Remember, Isaiah was also called to make a spectacle of himself in humiliating fashion.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. Genesis 6: 11-14
…6And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. 7By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Hebrews 11: 6-7
…4For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; 5if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight; 6if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly;… 2 Peter 2: 4-6
You shall bear their punishment - There is much symbolism at play here, Christ will later come and be wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace will be upon Him.
“He now plays the role of the priest, carrying the burden of his people’s sins on his shoulder.” (Block)
390 Days -
Many different explanations have been given for these 390 and 40 years. Probably the best one was stated by Wiersbe: “When you add the years of the reigns of the kings of Judah from Rehoboam to Zedekiah, as recorded in 1 and 2 Kings, you have a total of 394 years. Since during three of the years of his reign Rehoboam walked with God (2 Chron. 11:16–17), we end up with a number very close to Ezekiel’s 390 years.”
ii. “Verse 4 makes it plain that the period must not represent the time of Israel’s sinning, but the period during which the nation bears its iniquity and is punished.” (Feinberg)
With your arm bared - No longer concealed, the strong arm of the Lord is fit both to deliver and to judge. They refused to repent unto His deliverance, so now He will send Babylon, yet be sure this is from God.
…11As long as Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed; but when he lowered them, Amalek prevailed. 12When Moses’ hands grew heavy, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Then Aaron and Hur held his hands up, one on each side, so that his hands remained steady until the sun went down. 13So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his army with the sword.… Exodus 17: 11-13
9-17. Make your bread from them - This would lead one to believe that he was not lying on the floor all day, but for a certain time each day, for he also had to make his bread. This is the famous Ezekiel 4:9 bread, I like the one with the sesame seed coating.
20 shekels and sixth part of a hin - A hin is 5.5 quarts so less than a quart of water, and approximately 8 ounces of bread. This is good bread, but these are meager quantities for the day, and one could not be very active on this amount of calories and fluid. This is to show siege type of rations, and though he is not in Jerusalem, surely he has born their griefs and carried their sorrows.
On human dung - This will be even more shocking to him in that era than would be to us as westerners in this time. We typically don't save our feces, but during the siege on Jerusalem this would become fuel after all the wood is used up. Sadly, after the rations were gone, their children became their food. For a practicing Jew this would be a sign of uncleanness, and during the siege they would not have the luxury of pretending at cleanness through the law and rituals, but their outside would now match their insides.
…24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. 25Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside may become clean as well.… Matthew 23: 24-26
Ah Lord God, behold, I have never defiled myself - This was hard thing for Ezekiel, and so he petitioned the Lord and the Lord provided a substitute. Ezekiel 4:9 bread would be cooked over cows dung instead, leaving Ezekiel's record untarnished. We should all pray that we would not falter for His name's sake, that we are called Christians because we follow Him, that should give us much desire to remain unsoiled by the world.
…26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless. 27Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1: 26-27
Ancients (and some in today’s world) would use dung to fuel a fire, but according to Feinberg, normally dung would not be used for a fire to bake bread. It was considered unclean whether it was animal dung or human dung. God allowed Ezekiel to lessen the offense, but not take it away.
ii. Meyer saw a lesson in God’s response to Ezekiel’s appeal. “We may be feeling that certain trials are insupportable, or certain demands beyond our power to meet. At such hours of bitter anguish it is quite permissible for us to go into the secret place of the Most High and gasp out our complaint, saying, ‘Ah, Lord God!’”
Look at one another in dismay - Their pride will turn to anxiety, and they will not have an answer for each other. They did not heed the words of Isaiah, Jeremiah or any of the other true prophets, but here God is emphasizing once again that the siege will come, Jerusalem will be destroyed and the captivity will continue.
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