Ezekiel 4:5 Komentář

Ezekiel was now among the captives in Babylon, but they there had Jerusalem still upon their hearts; the pious captives looked towards it with an eye of faith (as Dan 6:10), the presumptuous ones looked towards it with an eye of pride, and flattered themselves with a conceit that they should shortly return thither again; those that remained corresponded with the captives, and, it is likely, bouyed them up with hopes that all would be well yet, as long as Jerusalem was standing in its strength, and perhaps upbraided those with their folly who had surrendered at first; therefore, to take down this presumption, God gives the prophet, in this chapter, a very clear and affecting foresight of the besieging of Jerusalem by the Chaldean army and the calamities which would attend that siege. Two things are here represented to him in vision: - I. The fortifications that should be raised against the city; this is signified by the prophet's laying siege to the portraiture of Jerusalem (Eze 4:1-3) and laying first on one side and then on the other side before it (Eze 4:4-8). II. The famine that should rage within the city; this is signified by his eating very coarse fare, and confining himself to a little of it, so long as this typical representation lasted (Eze 4:9-17).

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 4 This chapter contains a prophecy of the siege of Jerusalem, and of the famine that attended it. The siege is described by a portrait of the city of Jerusalem on a tile, laid before the prophet, Eze 4:1; by each of the actions, representing a siege of it, as building a fort, casting a mount, and setting a camp and battering rams against it, and an iron pan for a wall, between the prophet, the besieger, and the city, Eze 4:2; by his gesture, lying first on his left side for the space of three hundred ninety days, and then on his right side for the space of forty days, pointing at the time when the city should be taken, Eze 4:4; and by setting his face to the siege, and uncovering his arm, and prophesying, Eze 4:7; and by bands being laid on him, so that he could not turn from one side to the other, till the siege was ended, Eze 4:8; the famine is signified by bread the prophet was to make of various sorts of grain and seeds, baked with men's dung, and eaten by weight, with water drank by measure, which is applied unto the people; it is suggested that this would be fulfilled by the children of Israel's eating defiled bread among the Gentiles, Eze 4:9; but upon the prophet's concern about eating anything forbidden by the law, which he had never done, cow's dung is allowed instead of men's, to prepare the bread with, Eze 4:14; and the chapter is concluded with a resolution to bring a severe famine on them, to their great astonishment, and with which they should be consumed for their iniquity, Eze 4:16.

For I have laid upon thee 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, Kg1 15:29; when many places in the kingdom were wasted; from whence, to the fortieth year of Ahasuerus, when the Jews were entirely set at liberty, were three hundred and ninety years (e); 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 (f) 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 whence, to the destruction of Jerusalem, were three hundred and ninety years; which sense is best, and is what is first given; so shalt thou 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. (e) Vid. Lyra in loc. (f) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 26. p. 73.

(Ver. 4 seqq.) And you shall lie on your left side, and you shall bear the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, according to the number of days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of days, three hundred and ninety days; so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when you have completed these, you shall lie again on your right side, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have given you one day for a year, I say, one day for a year. Let us consider the 390 years that are counted as the same number of days, during which the prophet lay bound and constrained on his left side; so that he did not turn to his other side, showing the captivity and miseries of the ten tribes, that is, the Israelites. And as for the other forty years, in which he lay on his right side for the sins of Judah, or as the holy Scripture narrates, slept, it must be said about Israel that under King Pekah, the son of Remaliah, who reigned in Israel for twenty years, Tiglath-pileser, the king of Assyria (2 Kings 15), came and captured Aijon, Abel, the house of Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali, and took them into Assyria. After whom, Osee, the son of Ela, reigned for nine years in Israel, and he was captured with all of Samaria by Salmanassar, king of the Assyrians, and he was transported to Elam and the rivers of Abor and Gozam in the cities of the Medes. But in the sixth year of the reign of Ezechias, as the holy history of the Kings relates, Osee was captured. From this, if we calculate in order, how many years Israel was in distress and oppressed by the yoke of captivity, we can find out. From the sixth year to the twenty-ninth year (for Hezekiah reigned for twenty-four years) a total of twenty-four years are counted: after him came Manasseh, and he reigned for fifty-five years. After him, Amon reigned for two years. After him, Josiah reigned for thirty-two years. After him, Joakim, also called Eliakim, reigned for eleven years. After him, Jeconiah, also known as Jehoiachin, who was immediately led into captivity, reigned for eleven years, and for him, Zedekiah reigned for eleven years, during whose reign Jerusalem was captured and the temple destroyed. Therefore, from the first captivity of Israel, which occurred under King Pekah until the eleventh year of Zedekiah, when the Temple was desolated, there were 164 (or 174 according to some) years. From the second captivity, when Hoshea was captured and all of Samaria was destroyed, there were 135 (or 80 according to some) years. And the years of the desolation of the Temple were 70, added to the first captivity, making a total of 234 years. For in the second year of the reign of Darius, king of the Persians, the temple was built by Zerubbabel, the son of Salathiel, and by Jesus, the son of Josedech, while Haggai and Zechariah were prophesying. Darius reigned for thirty-six years, and after his death, thirty-five years were added. After him, Xerxes, the son of Darius, reigned for twenty years. After him, Artabanus reigned for seven months. And Xerxes, who was also known as Macrobiochus, reigned for forty years. After him, Xerxes reigned for two months, and Sogdianus reigned for seven months (or four, according to some). After him, Darius, nicknamed Νόθος, reigned for nineteen years. After him, Artaxerxes, nicknamed Μνήμων (also known as Memnon), son of Darius and Parisatis, reigned for forty years. He is called Assuerus by the Hebrews. During his reign, the story of Mordecai and Esther is told (Esther VIII), when the entire Jewish people were saved from the danger of death and regained their freedom. From the second year of Darius to the final year of Assuerus, there are a hundred and fifty-five years and four months. In the last 234 years that have been added to the previous ones, they make 389 years and 4 months. However, the death on the right side, that is, the 40 years, can be easily calculated. For after Eliakim, who was also called Joachim, his son Joachin, also known as Jechonias, reigned for three months. During his reign, the servants of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and it was surrounded by fortifications. Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the city, while his servants were besieging it. And Joachin, the king of Judah, went out to the king of Babylon, along with his mother, his servants, his princes, his eunuchs. And the king of Babylon received him in the eighth year of his reign and brought out all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the royal house. And after a little while, he carried away all of Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand into captivity, and every craftsman and smith. And nothing was left except for the poor of the land (Ibid.) . After capturing it with an infinite multitude of people, and with all the resources of Jerusalem, Zedekiah ruled for eleven years: under him the city was captured and the temple was destroyed. Its desolation lasted until the second year of Darius, seventy years in total. In the thirtieth year of the desolation of the temple, Cyrus ruled in Persia, after overthrowing King Astyages of the Medes. In accordance with the prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 45), he sent back almost fifty thousand men from the tribe of Judah to Jerusalem, along with the temple vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken away, and other things that are narrated in the history of Ezra (3 Ezra 1). So just as in Israel, that is, the ten tribes under King Phacee of Israel, under whom Salmanasar devastated the Israelite people greatly, we count three hundred and ninety years until the fortieth year of Assuerus, when the persecution of all the Jewish people was mitigated; so from the first year of Jechoniah, when a large part of Jerusalem was transferred to Babylon, until the first year of Cyrus, king of the Persians, which was the thirtieth year of the desolation of the temple, forty years are counted, under which the captivity of the Jews was loosened and freedom was restored to the people. Around 390 years after the Israelites and 40 years after the joining of the Jews, making a total of 430 years, they wish to be fulfilled by the baptism of the Savior until the end of the world. However, others, especially the Jews, want to be reckoned in tribulation, distress, and the yoke of captivity of the people from the second year of Vespasian when Jerusalem was captured by the Romans and the temple was destroyed, for a total of 430 years. And thus, the people will return to their former state, just as the children of Israel were in Egypt for 430 years. And it is written in Exodus: Now the time that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And again: It came to pass after four hundred and thirty years, all the armies of the Lord went out by night. And I am quite amazed why the Vulgate manuscripts have ninety hundred years, and in some it is written one hundred and fifty, when clearly the Hebrew, Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotian versions hold three hundred and ninety years; and among them the Septuagint, which, however, is not corrupted by the fault of the scribes, has the same number. We believe that the most difficult question, and dare I say arrogantly, not explained by anyone, has been made known not so much by our knowledge but by the grace of the Lord, fulfilling what He Himself promised: Seek, and ye shall find; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you (Matthew 7:7). But whoever wishes to calculate from the first captivity, which took place under Manahen the son of Gaddi, king of Israel, who reigned in Samaria for ten years (2 Kings 15); when Phul, the king of the Assyrians, came into the land of Israel and took a thousand talents of silver; and after him, two years later, Phacce, who reigned in Israel, will find that three hundred and ninety years were completed in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of King Assuerus, when the history of Esther is said to have taken place, which is also more credible. For Israel, not after the reign of Assuerus had ended, but while he still reigned, cast off the yoke of a most grievous servitude.

Ezekiel was to lie down on his right side for 40 days and 150 on his left, to dig through a wall and flee, portraying in himself the captivity. Another time Ezekiel is to sharpen a sword to a point, shave his head with it and divide the hair four ways and assign a part here, a part there, without listing it all. The ruler of the universe ordered each of these things to be done so that by the strangeness of this spectacle he might gather those who would not be persuaded by speech or give an ear to prophecy and so dispose them to hear the divine oracles.… So, just as the God of the universe providentially ordered each one of these things to be done for the good of those who live carelessly, so he arranged this extraordinary novelty to draw everyone by its strangeness to the spectacle and make his counsel persuasive to those who come. For the novelty of the spectacle is a reliable guarantee of the instruction it can give, and whoever comes to the spectacle leaves instructed in divine matters.

Ezekiel delineates Jerusalem, and lays siege to it, as a type of the manner in which the Chaldean army should surround that city, Eze 4:1-3. The prophet commanded to lie on his left side three hundred and ninety days, and on his right side forty days, with the signification, Eze 4:4-8. The scanty and coarse provision allowed the prophet during his symbolical siege, consisting chiefly of the worst kinds of grain, and likewise ill-prepared, as he had only cow's dung for fuel, tended all to denote the scarcity of provision, fuel, and every necessary of life, which the Jews should experience during the siege of Jerusalem, Eze 4:9-17.

SYMBOLICAL VISION OF THE SIEGE AND THE INIQUITY-BEARING. (Eze. 4:1-17) tile--a sun-dried brick, such as are found in Babylon, covered with cuneiform inscriptions, often two feet long and one foot broad.

three hundred and ninety days--The three hundred ninety years of punishment appointed for Israel, and forty for Judah, cannot refer to the siege of Jerusalem. That siege is referred to in Eze 4:1-3, and in a sense restricted to the literal siege, but comprehending the whole train of punishment to be inflicted for their sin; therefore we read here merely of its sore pressure, not of its result. The sum of three hundred ninety and forty years is four hundred thirty, a period famous in the history of the covenant-people, being that of their sojourn in Egypt (Exo 12:40-41; Gal 3:17). The forty alludes to the forty years in the wilderness. Elsewhere (Deu 28:68; Hos 9:3), God threatened to bring them back to Egypt, which must mean, not Egypt literally, but a bondage as bad as that one in Egypt. So now God will reduce them to a kind of new Egyptian bondage to the world: Israel, the greater transgressor, for a longer period than Judah (compare Eze 20:35-38). Not the whole of the four hundred thirty years of the Egypt state is appointed to Israel; but this shortened by the forty years of the wilderness sojourn, to imply, that a way is open to their return to life by their having the Egypt state merged into that of the wilderness; that is, by ceasing from idolatry and seeking in their sifting and sore troubles, through God's covenant, a restoration to righteousness and peace [FAIRBAIRN]. The three hundred ninety, in reference to the sin of Israel, was also literally true, being the years from the setting up of the calves by Jeroboam (Kg1 12:20-33), that is, from 975 to 583 B.C.: about the year of the Babylonians captivity; and perhaps the forty of Judah refers to that part of Manasseh's fifty-five year's reign in which he had not repented, and which, we are expressly told, was the cause of God's removal of Judah, notwithstanding Josiah's reformation (Kg1 21:10-16; Kg2 23:26-27).