Albert Barnes Commentary Ezekiel 4

A tile - Rather, a brick. Sun-dried or kiln-burned bricks were from very early times used for building walls throughout the plain of Mesopotamia. The bricks of Nineveh and Babylon are sometimes stamped with what appears to be the device of the king in whose reign they were made, and often covered with a kind of enamel on which various scenes are portrayed. Among the subjects depicted on such bricks discovered at Nimroud are castles and forts.

Lay siege against it - The prophet is represented as doing what he portrays. The leading features of a siege are depicted. See the note on Jeremiah 6:6.

The camp - Encampments. The word denotes various armies in various positions around the city.

Fort - It was customary in sieges to construct towers of vast height, sometimes of 20 stories, which were wheeled up to the walls to enable the besiegers to reach the battlements with their arrows; in the lower part of such a tower, there was commonly a battering ram. These towers are frequently represented in the Assyrian monuments.

Battering rams - Better than the translation in the margin. Assyrian monuments prove that these engines of war are of great antiquity. These engines seem to have been beams suspended by chains, generally in movable towers, and to have been applied against the walls in the way familiar to us from Greek and Roman history. The name “ram” was probably given to describe their mode of operation; no Assyrian monument yet discovered exhibits the ram’s head of later times.

An iron pan - Another figure in the coming siege. On Assyrian sculptures from Nimroud and Kouyunjik there are sieges of cities with “forts, mounts, and rams;” and together with these we see a kind of shield set up on the ground, behind which archers are shooting. Such a shield would be represented by the “flat plate” (margin). Ezekiel was directed to take such a plate (part of his household furniture) and place it between him and the representation of the city.

A sign to the house of Israel - This “sign” was not necessarily acted before the people, but may simply have been described to them as a vivid representation of the event which it foretold. “Israel” stands here for the kingdom of Judah (Compare to Ezekiel 3:7, 3:17; Ezekiel 5:4; Ezekiel 8:6). After the captivity of the ten tribes the kingdom of Judah represented the whole nation. Hence, prophets writing after this event constantly address their countrymen as the house of Israel without distinction of tribes.

The siege being thus represented, the condition and suffering of the inhabitants is exhibited by the condition of one who, bound as a prisoner or oppressed by sickness, cannot turn from his right side to his left. The prophet was in such a state.

Bear their iniquity — The prophet was, symbolically, to bear their iniquities for a fixed period, to show that after the period thus foretold, the burden of their sins should be taken off, and the people should be forgiven. (Compare Leviticus 16:21-22.)

According to the number of the days - Or, “to be to you as a number of days (even as)” and so on. Compare the margin reference.

Some understand that these “days” were the years during which Israel and Judah sinned. For Israel, these date from Jeroboam’s rebellion to the time at which Ezekiel wrote (circa 390 years); and for Judah, from Josiah’s reformation.

But it seems more in accordance with the other “signs” to suppose that they represent not what had been, but what shall be. The whole number of years is 430 (Ezekiel 4:5–6), the number assigned long ago for the affliction of the descendants of Abraham (Genesis 15:13; Exodus 12:40).

The “forty years” apportioned to Judah (Ezekiel 4:6) bring to mind the 40 years spent in the wilderness. These were years not only of punishment but also of discipline and preparation for restoration. So, Ezekiel would suggest that the difference between the punishments of Israel and Judah is this: Israel's punishment would be of much longer duration with no definite hope of recovery, while Judah's would be imposed with the express purpose of the renewal of mercy.