4 1 The besieging of the city of Jerusalem is signified. 9 The long continuance of the captivity of Israel. 16 An hunger is prophesied to come.
1 Thou also son of man, take thee a brick, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem,
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 lay engines of war against it round about.
3 Moreover, take an [a]iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city, and direct thy face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it: this shall be a sign unto the house of Israel.
4 Sleep thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the [b]house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days, that thou shalt sleep upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity.
5 For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity according to the number of the days, even three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
6 And when thou hast accomplished them, sleep again upon thy [c]right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee a day for a year, even a day for a year.
7 Therefore thou shalt direct thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine [d]arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.
8 And behold, I will lay [e]bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.
9 Thou shalt take also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, [f]and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof according to the number of the days, that thou shalt sleep upon thy side: even [g]three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.
10 And the meat, whereof thou shalt eat shall be by weight, even [h]twenty shekels a day: and from time to time shalt thou eat thereof.
11 Thou shalt drink also water by measure, even the sixth part of [i]an Hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.
12 And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it [j]in the dung that cometh out of man in their sight.
13 And the Lord said, So shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will cast them.
14 Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up, even unto this hour, I have not eaten of a thing dead or torn in pieces, neither came there any [k]unclean flesh in my mouth.
15 Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee bullocks [l]dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.
16 Moreover, he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break [m]the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care, and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment.
17 Because that bread and water shall fail, they shall be astonied one with another, and shall consume away for their iniquity.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 4:3 Which signified the stubbornness and hardness of their heart.
- Ezekiel 4:4 Hereby he represented the idolatry and sin of the ten tribes (for Samaria was on his left hand from Babylon) and how they had remained therein three hundred and ninety years.
- Ezekiel 4:6 Which declared Judah, who had now from the time of Josiah slept in their sins forty years.
- Ezekiel 4:7 In token of a speedy vengeance.
- Ezekiel 4:8 The people should so straightly be besieged, that they should not be able, to turn them.
- Ezekiel 4:9 Meaning, that the famine should be so great, that they should be glad to eat whatsoever they could get.
- Ezekiel 4:9 Which were fourteen months that the city was besieged, and this was as many days as Israel sinned years.
- Ezekiel 4:10 Which make a pound.
- Ezekiel 4:11 Read Exod. 29:40.
- Ezekiel 4:12 Signifying hereby the great scarcity of fuel and matter to burn.
- Ezekiel 4:14 Much less such vile corruption.
- Ezekiel 4:15 To be as fire to bake thy bread with.
- Ezekiel 4:16 That is, the force and strength wherewith it should nourish, Isa. 3:1; Ezek. 5:17 and 14:13.