John Gill Commentary Ezekiel 4

You also, son of man, take a tile^F26. Or "brick". The Targum renders it, a "stone"; but a tile or brick, especially one that is not dried and burned, but green, is more fit to cut in it the figure of a city. Some think that this was ordered because cities are built of brick; or to show the weakness of the city of Jerusalem, how easily it might be demolished; and Jerom thinks there was some design to lead the Jews to reflect upon their making bricks in Egypt, and their hard service there; though perhaps the truer reason may be, because the Babylonians has been used to write upon tiles. Epigenes^F1 says they had celestial observations of a long course of years, written on tiles; hence the prophet is told to describe Jerusalem on one, which was to be destroyed by the king of Babylon;

and lay it before you: as persons do, who are about to draw a picture, make a portrait, or engrave the form of anything they intend: and portray upon it the city; [even] Jerusalem; or engrave upon it, by making incisions on it, and so describing the form and figure of the city of Jerusalem.

FOOTNOTES:

• F26: (hnbl) "laterem", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Polanus. Piscator.
• F1: Apud Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 56.

And lay siege against it In his own person, as in (Ezekiel 4:3); or draw the form of a siege, or figure of an army besieging a city; or rather of the instruments and means used in a siege, as follows:

and build a fort against it Kimchi interprets it a wooden tower, built over against the city, to subdue it; Jarchi takes it to be an instrument by which stones were cast into the city; and so the Arabic version renders it, "machines to cast stones"; the Targum, a fortress; so Nebuchadnezzar in reality did what was here only done in type, (2 Kings 25:1); where the same word is used as here:

and cast a mount about it a heap of earth cast up, in order to look into the city, cast in darts, and mount the walls; what the French call "bastion", as Jarchi observes:

set the camp also against it place the army in their tents about it:

and set [battering] rams against it round about a warlike instrument, that had an iron head, and horns like a ram, with which in a siege the walls of a city were battered and beaten down. Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, interpret the word of princes and generals of the army, who watched at the several corners of the city, that none might go in and out; so the Targum seems to understand it ^F2 . The Arabic version is, "mounts to cast darts"; (See Gill on Ezekiel 21:22).

FOOTNOTES:

• F2: So R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 50. 9.

Moreover take to yourself an iron pan. Which Kimchi thinks, for its metal, represented the hardness of the hearts of the people of Israel; and, for its colour, the blackness of their sins: though others are of opinion, this being a pan in which things are fried, it may signify the miseries of the Jews in captivity; the roasting of Ahab and Zedekiah in the fire, and particularly the burning of the city: others, the wrath of God against them, and his resolution to destroy them.

But rather, since the use of it was as follows, and set it [for] a wall of iron between you and the city, it seems to represent all such things as are made use of by besiegers to screen them from the besieged; such as are now used are trenches, parapets, bastions for the prophet in this type is the besieger, representing the Chaldean army secure from the annoyance of those within the walls of the city.

And set your face against it; with a firm resolution to besiege and take the city; which denotes both the settled wrath of God against this people, and the determined purpose of the king of Babylon not to move from it until he had taken it.

And it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it; as an emblem of the army of the Chaldeans besieging it, which is confirmed by the next clause.

This [shall be] a sign to the house of Israel; of the city of Jerusalem being besieged by the Babylonians; this was a sign representing it, and giving them assurance of it.

Lie you also upon your left side Some think this was not in reality, but in vision, as Kimchi observes; and so Maimonides ^F3; and in like manner they understand his eating and drinking by measures and preparing food, as he is directed in a following part of this chapter: but others are of opinion that all this was really done.

The reasons given on both sides are not despicable. It is urged against the reality of the fact, that the prophet, without a miracle, could never have lain so long on one side; and besides, this seems to be contradicted by a later account, of his sitting in his house before the expiration of those days; since from the fifth day of the fourth month of the fifth year, in which he began to prophesy, (Ezekiel 1:1Ezekiel 1:2), (and this order was seven days after that at least, (Ezekiel 3:15)), to the fifth day of the sixth month of the sixth year, when we find him sitting, (Ezekiel 8:1); were but four hundred and thirteen days; and if seven are taken out from thence, there are but four hundred and six; whereas the whole time of his lying for Israel and Judah were four hundred and thirty; and it is further observed, that it does not seem decent that the prophet should be obliged really to eat such bread as he was ordered to make.

On the other hand it is observed, that the order of portraying the siege of Jerusalem on a the, and setting an iron pan for a wall, seem to direct to the doing of real facts, and to that this order is subjoined, without any mark of distinction; besides, the prophet was to have this portrait in view, while he was lying on his side, and uncover his arms, which seem to denote real facts: and was to prophesy, not by words, for he was to be dumb, (Ezekiel 3:26); but by facts; and he was to do all this in the sight of his people; and if the order to make a cake of bread was not to be really performed in the manner directed, there would have been no occasion of deprecating it.

The learned Witsius ^F4, who has collected the arguments on both sides, is inclined to the latter; and observes from others, that some persons have lain longer on one side than the prophet, without a miracle: particularly a certain paralytic nobleman, who lay sixteen years in such a manner: and as for the computation of time, Cocceius is of opinion that the forty days for Judah are included in the three hundred and ninety for Israel; and which indeed seem to be the whole number, (Ezekiel 4:9); and which at once solves the difficulty; and besides, the force of the objection may be taken off by observing, that the fifth year might be intercalated, and consist of thirteen months, which was common with the Jews to have a "Veadar", or intercalated month: nor is it dishonourable nor unusual for the Lord to call his dear servants sometimes to hard and disagreeable service, as both these cases seem to be, when he has ends of his own glory, and the good of others, to be answered thereby.

And the lying on the left side for the sins of the house of Israel was, as Jarchi thinks, because that Samaria, which was the head of the ten tribes, lay to the left of Jerusalem: see (Ezekiel 16:46); or rather, because the left hand is not so honourable as the right; it may show that the Lord has not such an esteem for Israel as for Judah; and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it; not to atone for it, but to show what was the cause of their captivity; for herein the prophet was no type of Christ, but represented the people of Israel; who had been grievously sinning against God, during the term of time hereafter mentioned, and now would be punished for it; for by "iniquity" is meant the punishment of it, which is often the sense of the word used; see (Genesis 4:13); [according] to the number of the days that you shall lie upon it you shall bear their iniquity: which are particularly declared in (Ezekiel 4:5).

FOOTNOTES:

• F3: Moreh Nevochim, par. 2. c. 46.
• F4: Miscel. Sacr. tom. 1. l. 1. c. 12. sect. 14, 15

For I have laid upon you the years of their iniquity Or the iniquity which for so many years they have been guilty of; that is, the punishment of it: according to the number of the days ; a day for a year; three hundred and ninety days ; which signify three hundred and ninety years; and so many years there were from the revolt of the ten tribes from Rehoboam, and the setting up the calves at Dan and Bethel, to the destruction of Jerusalem; which may be reckoned thus: the apostasy was in the fourth year of Rehoboam, so that there remained thirteen years of his reign, for he reigned seventeen years; Abijah his successor reigned three years; Asa, forty one; Jehoshaphat, twenty five; Joram, eight; Ahaziah, one; Athaliah, seven; Joash, forty; Amaziah, twenty nine: Uzziah, fifty two; Jotham, sixteen; Ahaz, sixteen; Hezekiah, twenty nine; Manasseh, fifty five; Amos, two; Josiah, thirty one; Jehoahaz, three months; Jehoiakim, eleven years; Jeconiah, three months and ten days; and Zedekiah, eleven years; in all three hundred and ninety years.

Though Grotius reckons them from the fall of Solomon to the carrying captive of the ten tribes by Shalmaneser. According to Jerom, both the three hundred and ninety days, and the forty days, were figurative of the captivities of Israel and Judah. The captivity of Israel, or the ten tribes, began under Pekah king of Israel, (1 Kings 15:29) ; when many places in the kingdom were wasted; from which, to the fortieth year of Ahasuerus, when the Jews were entirely set at liberty, were three hundred and ninety years ^F5 ; and the captivity of Judah began in the first year of Jeconiah, which, to the first of Cyrus, were forty years.

The Jewish writers make these years to be the time of the idolatry of these people in their chronicle ^F6 they say, from hence we learn that Israel provoked the Lord to anger, from the time they entered into the land until they went out of it, three hundred and ninety years. Which, according to Jarchi and Kimchi, are, to be reckoned partly in the times of the judges, and partly in the times of the kings of Israel; in the times of the former, a hundred and eleven years: from Micah, till the ark was carried captive in the days of Eli, forty years; and from the time of Jeroboam to Hoshea, two hundred and forty; which make three hundred and ninety one: but the last of Hoshea is not of the number, since it was in the ninth year of his reign the city of Samaria was taken. So Jarchi. Kimchi's reckoning is different.

Abarbinel is of opinion that these years describe the four hundred and thirty years of Israel's bondage in Egypt; though, he says, they may be understood of the time of the division of the kingdom under Rehoboam, from which, to the destruction of Jerusalem, were three hundred and ninety years; which sense is best, and is what is first given;

so shall you bear the iniquity of the house of Israel ; as many days as answer to these years; by the house of Israel is meant not merely the ten tribes, who had been carried captive long before this time, but such of them also as were mixed with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

FOOTNOTES:

• F5: Vid. Lyra in loc.
• F6: Seder Olam Rabba, c. 26. p. 73.