Eze 4:3-12, Eze 11, 20:20 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 3. Take thou unto thee an iron pan ] machabath , a flat plate or slice , as the margin properly renders it: such as are used in some countries to bake bread on, called a griddle or girdle , being suspended above the fire, and kept in a proper degree of heat for the purpose. A plate like this, stuck perpendicularly in the earth, would show the nature of a wall much better than any pan could do. The Chaldeans threw such a wall round Jerusalem, to prevent the besieged from receiving any succours, and from escaping from the city. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. ] This shall be an emblematical representation of what shall actually take place.

‏ Ezekiel 4:3-12

Verse 3. Take thou unto thee an iron pan] machabath, a flat plate or slice, as the margin properly renders it: such as are used in some countries to bake bread on, called a griddle or girdle, being suspended above the fire, and kept in a proper degree of heat for the purpose. A plate like this, stuck perpendicularly in the earth, would show the nature of a wall much better than any pan could do. The Chaldeans threw such a wall round Jerusalem, to prevent the besieged from receiving any succours, and from escaping from the city.

This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.] This shall be an emblematical representation of what shall actually take place.

Verse 4. Lie thou also upon thy left side] It appears that all that is mentioned here and in the following verses was done, not in idea, but in fact. The prophet lay down on his left side upon a couch to which he was chained, Eze 4:6, for three hundred and ninety days; and afterwards he lay in the same manner, upon his right side, for forty days. And thus was signified the state of the Jews, and the punishment that was coming upon them. 1. The prophet himself represents the Jews. 2. His lying, their state of depression. 3. His being bound, their helplessness and captivity. 4. The days signify years, a day for a year; during which they were to bear their iniquity, or the temporal punishment due to their sins. 5. The three hundred and ninety days, during which he was to lie on his left side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Israel, point out two things: the first, The duration of the siege of Jerusalem. Secondly, The duration of the captivity off the ten tribes, and that of Judah. 6. The prophet lay three hundred and ninety days upon his left side, and forty days upon his right side, in all four hundred and thirty days. Now Jerusalem was besieged the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah, 2Ki 25:1, 2, and was not taken till the eleventh year of the same prince, 2Ki 25:2. But properly speaking, the siege did not continue the whole of that time; it was interrupted; for Nebuchadnezzar was obliged to raise it, and go and meet the Egyptians, who were coming to its succour. This consumed a considerable portion of time. After he had defeated the Egyptians, he returned and recommenced the siege, and did not leave it till the city was taken. We may, therefore, conclude that the four hundred and thirty days only comprise the time in which the city was actually besieged, when the city was encompassed with walls of circumvallation, so that the besieged were reduced to a state of the utmost distress. The siege commenced the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah; and it was taken on the ninth day of the fourth month of the eleventh year of the same king. Thus the siege had lasted, in the whole, eighteen months, or five hundred and ten days. Subtract for the time that Nebuchadnezzar was obliged to interrupt the siege, in order to go against the Egyptians, four months and twenty days, or one hundred and forty days, and there will remain four hundred and thirty days, composed of 390+40=430. See Calmet on this place. See also at the end of this chapter. See Clarke on Eze 4:16.

Verse 6. Forty days] Reckon, says Archbishop Newcome, near fifteen years and six months in the reign of Manasseh, two years in that of Amon, three months in that of Jehoahaz, eleven years in that of Jehoiakim, three months and ten days in that of Jehoiachin, and eleven years in that of Zedekiah; and there arises a period of forty years, during which gross idolatry was practiced in the kingdom of Judah. Forty days may have been employed in spoiling and desolating the city and the temple.

Verse 9. Take thou also unto thee wheat] In times of scarcity, it is customary in all countries to mix several kinds of coarser grain with the finer, to make it last the longer. This mashlin, which the prophet is commanded to take, of wheat, barley, beans, lentiles, millet, and fitches, was intended to show how scarce the necessaries of life should be during the siege.

Verse 10. Twenty shekels a day] The whole of the above grain, being ground, was to be formed into one mass, out of which he was to make three hundred and ninety loaves; one loaf for each day; and this loaf was to be of twenty shekels in weight. Now a shekel, being in weight about half an ounce, this would be ten ounces of bread for each day; and with this water to the amount of one sixth part of a hin, which is about a pint and a half of our measure. All this shows that so reduced should provisions be during the siege, that they should be obliged to eat the meanest sort of aliment, and that by weight, and their water by measure; each man's allowance being scarcely a pint and a half, and ten ounces, a little more than half a pound of bread, for each day's support.

Verse 12. Thou shalt bake it with dung] Dried ox and cow dung is a common fuel in the east; and with this, for want of wood and coals, they are obliged to prepare their food. Indeed, dried excrement of every kind is gathered. Here, the prophet is to prepare his bread with dry human excrement. And when we know that this did not come in contact with the bread, and was only used to warm the plate, (see Eze 4:3,) on which the bread was laid over the fire, it removes all the horror and much of the disgust. This was required to show the extreme degree of wretchedness to which they should be exposed; for, not being able to leave the city to collect the dried excrements of beasts, the inhabitants during the siege would be obliged, literally, to use dried human ordure for fuel. The very circumstances show that this was the plain fact of the case. However, we find that the prophet was relieved from using this kind of fuel, for cow's dung was substituted at his request. See Eze 4:15.

‏ Ezekiel 11

CHAPTER XI

This chapter denounces the judgments of God against those wicked persons who remained in Jerusalem and made a mock of the types and predictions of the prophets, 1-13;

compare Eze 11:3 with Jer 1:13.

God promises to favour those who were gone into captivity, and intimates their restoration from the Babylonish yoke, 14-21.

Then the shechinah, or symbol of the Divine Presence, is represented forsaking the city, as in the foregoing chapter it did the temple, 22, 23;

and the prophet returns in vision to the place from which he set out, (Eze 8:1. &c.,)

in order to communicate his instructions to his brethren of the captivity, 24, 25.

NOTES ON CHAP. XI

Verse 1. At the door of the gate five and twenty men] The same persons, no doubt, who appear, Eze 8:16, worshipping the sun.

Jaazaniah the son of Azur] In Eze 8:16, we find a Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. If Shaphan was also called Azur, they may be the same person. But it is most likely that there were two of this name, and both chiefs among the people.

Verse 3. It is not near] That is, the threatened invasion.

This city is the caldron, and we be the flesh.] See the vision of the seething pot, Jer 1:13. These infidels seem to say: "We will run all risks, we will abide in the city. Though it be the caldron, and we the flesh, yet we will share its fate: if it perish, we will perish with it." Or they may allude to the above prediction of Jeremiah, in order to ridicule it: "We were to have been boiled long ago: but the fulfilment of that prediction is not near yet."

Verse 7. Your slain-they are the flesh] Jerusalem is the caldron, and those who have been slain in it, they are the flesh; and though ye purpose to stay and share its fate, ye shall not be permitted to do so, ye shall be carried into captivity.

Verse 9. And deliver you into the hands of strangers] This seems to refer chiefly to Zedekiah and his family.

Verse 11. I will judge you in the border of Israel,] Though Riblah was in Syria, yet it was on the very frontiers of Israel; and it was here that Zedekiah's sons were slain, and his own eyes put out.

Verse 13. Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died.] Most probably he was struck dead the very hour in which Ezekiel prophesied against him. His death appears to have resembled that of Ananias and Sapphira, Ac 5:1, &c.

Verse 15. Get you far from the Lord] These are the words of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, against those of Israel who had been carried away to Babylon with Jeconiah. Go ye far from the Lord: but as for us, the land of Israel is given to us for a possession, we shall never be removed from it, and they shall never return to it.

Verse 16. Yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary] Though thus exiled from their own land, yet not forgotten by their God. While in their captivity, I will dispense many blessings to them; and I will restore them to their own land, Eze 11:17, from which they shall put away all idolatry, Eze 11:18.

Verse 19. And I will give them one heart] A whole system of renewed affections.

And I will put a new spirit within you] To direct and influence these new affections.

And I will take the stony heart out of their flesh] That which would not receive the impressions of my Spirit.

And will give them a heart of flesh] One that is capable of receiving and retaining these impressions.

Verse 20. That they may walk in my statutes] The holiness of their lives shall prove the work of God upon their hearts. Then it shall appear that I am their God, because I have done such things in them and for them; and their holy conduct shall show that they are my people. See Clarke on Eze 36:25, &c.

Verse 21. But as for them whose heart walketh] Them whose affections are attached to idolatry, they shall have such reward as their idols can give them, and such a recompense as Divine justice shall award them.

Verse 23. The glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city] This vision is no mean proof of the long-suffering of God. He did not abandon this people all at once; he departed by little and little. FIRST, he left the temple. SECONDLY, he stopped a little at the gate of the city. THIRDLY, he departed entirely from the city and went to the Mount of Olives, which lay on the east side of the city. Having tarried there for some time to see i! they would repent and turn to him-FOURTHLY, he departed to heaven. The vision being now concluded, the prophet is taken away by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, and there announces to the captive Israelites what God had showed him in the preceding visions, and the good that he had spoken concerning them; who at first did not seem to profit much by them, which the prophet severely reproves.

‏ Ezekiel 4:3-12

‏ Ezekiel 11

‏ Ezekiel 20:20