The Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 4:5

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Three hundred and ninety days, etc. The days, as stated in Ezekiel 4:6, stand for years according to the symbolism (with which Ezekiel was probably acquainted) of Numbers 14:34. How we are to explain the precise number chosen is a problem winch has much exercised the minds of interpreters. I will begin by stating what seems to me the most tenable solution. In doing this I follow Smend and Cornill in taking the LXX. as giving the original reading, and the Hebrew as a later correction, made with a purpose.

(a) It taught the certainty of the punishment. No plots, or rebellions, or alliances with Egypt, could avert the doom of exile from these who should survive the siege of Jerusalem.

(b) It taught the exiles to accept their punishment with patience, but with hope. There was a limit, and that not very far off, which some of them might live to see, and beyond which there lay the hope of a restoration for both Israel and Judah. If that hope was not realized to the extent which Ezekiel's language impiles, the same may be, said of the language of Isaiah 40-66; whether we refer those chapters to Isaiah himself or to the "great unknown" who followed Ezekiel, and may have listened to his teaching.

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commentaryMatthew Henry on Ezekiel 4:1-8The prophet was to represent the siege of Jerusalem by signs. He was to lie on his left side for a number of days, supposed to be equal to the years from the establishment of idolatry. All that the prophet sets before t…Matthew Henry commentaryThe Representation of a Siege. (b. c. 595.)THE REPRESENTATION OF A SIEGE. (B. C. 595.) The prophet is here ordered to represent to himself and others by signs which would be proper and powerful to strike the fancy and to affect the mind, the siege of Jerusalem;…Matthew Henry commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 4:1-8Vicarious suffering. Every true prophet is a forerunner of Jesus Christ. We do not detract from the work of the Saviour—we magnify it—when we discern that the same kind of work (though not equal in measure or effectiven…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 4:1-17The siege of Jerusalem and the sufferings of the people symbolized. "Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem," etc. This chapter presents difficultie…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 4:1-17EXPOSITION Prior to any detailed examination of the strange series of acts recorded in this and the following chapter, we are met with the question whether they were indeed visible and outward acts, or only imagined by…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 4:4-6Sin bearing. Ezekiel is to bear the sin of his people, doing it indeed symbolically every night, by lying first on one side, with the idea that the sin of Israel is upon him so that he cannot move; and then for a shorte…Joseph S. Exell and contributors