Hesekiel 4:2 Kommentar

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.

And lay siege against it,.... In his own person, as in Eze 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, Kg2 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 (b). The Arabic version is, "mounts to cast darts"; See Gill on Eze 21:22. (b) So R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 50. 9.

Jerusalem is to be represented on a brick, and the brick itself is to be placed before the prophet, so that when it looks like Jerusalem in the dust, it can portray the whole blockade against it.

(Chapter 4, Verses 1-2.) And you, son of man, take a brick for yourself and set it before you, and portray on it the city of Jerusalem. Build siege works against it, build a siege mound against it, raise a ramp against it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams against it all around. As we have said before, go inside and enclose it in the midst of your house; and behold, ropes will be put on you, and you will be bound, and you shall not go out. This is a symbolic representation of the prophet's future siege of the city of Jerusalem. Now he is commanded to use geometric art to depict it on a brick, and to place that brick in front of the prophet. After he has portrayed Jerusalem with dust, he is to depict the entire siege against it, representing the fortifications, the raised mound, the encircling army, and the battering rams, all of which are typical in capturing cities. Fortifications are called the things by which a city is enclosed, so that none of the besieged can escape: mounds are brought together by which ramparts and ditches are filled; camps are the guards of soldiers in a circuit; battering rams are those by which the foundations of walls are shaken, and the joining of stones is dissolved. However, this is said in order to signify the neighboring captivity of the city of Jerusalem under Zedekiah: in the eleventh year of which both the king and the city were captured. On the side, which is called in Greek the feminine gender ἡ πλίνθος, Symmachus has more clearly interpreted it as πλίνθιον, which we can call a brick and a tile. In whose dust geometers are accustomed to draw lines, that is, lines and rays. From which some wish, not unreasonably, also to have knowledge of this doctrine (replicating those examples, that Joshua son of Nun sent explorers, who described the land (Joshua 2), which is properly called Geometry: and the Angel in Zechariah had a Geometric cord to measure Jerusalem (Zechariah 2). And what the Prophet now commands to describe in the dust (which is properly called scenography) we can take as a brick and as a stroke of the Israelites, which served Pharaoh in mud and clay (Exodus 1). Or suppose that the city, which they thought was strong and impregnable, is compared to a very fragile wall, which immediately dissolves upon contact with water, as was previously stated: is the hardest rock or a deserted mountain turned into a brick, which is corrupted by the Babylonian flood; according to what is written: Therefore, the Lord will bring upon you many and strong waters, the king of Assyria.

Some things, however, ought to be reproved strongly, so that when a fault is not recognized by the one who has committed it, he may be made aware of its gravity by verbal reproof, or when anyone glosses over an evil that he has perpetrated, he may be led by the harshness of his censure to entertain grave fears of its effects on him. For indeed it is the duty of a ruler to show by the voice of preaching the glory of our heavenly country, to disclose what great temptations of the old enemy are lurking in this life’s journey, and to correct with zealous harshness such evils among those who are under his sway that should not be gently borne with, lest, in being too little incensed against such faults, he himself be held guilty of all faults.

"And you shall set the siege against it, and you shall build fortifications, and you shall heap up a mound, and you shall set camps against it, and place battering rams around it." Therefore the teacher must vigilantly make known to the progressing soul what temptations follow it, so that it may be able to prepare itself cautiously against the snares of the malignant spirit. Hence it is well that now, after the city of Jerusalem has been described on the brick, it is said to the prophet: "And you shall set the siege against it, and you shall build fortifications, and you shall heap up a mound." For when the vision of peace is already being described, it is necessary that the wars of temptations be announced to it. For in order that it may be able to reach those eternal joys of peace, it must without doubt endure here many struggles of tribulations. Of which it is well said: "You shall set the siege against it." For the preacher sets a siege against the soul to be instructed when by forewarning he indicates in what ways vices oppose themselves to virtues, how lust strikes chastity, how anger disturbs the tranquility of the mind, how much foolish joy dissolves the vigor of the mind, how talkativeness destroys the fortification of the heart, how envy kills charity, how pride undermines the citadel of humility, how deceit, when it has corrupted truth in speech, corrupts it also in understanding, so that he who was unwilling to speak the truth that he understood no longer even understands what he might speak. Therefore the siege is set by the preacher when through the words of holy admonition it is shown which vices lie in wait against each and every virtue, and in what ways. And the preacher builds fortifications against the Jerusalem which he describes on the brick when he demonstrates how fortified all evils come against the mind, so that vices hide themselves under the appearance of virtues; so that, as we have often already said, immoderate anger may seek to appear as justice, and relaxation of discipline may wish to appear as gentleness, and stinginess may call itself frugality, and disordered pouring out of resources may call itself benevolence. For there are, as it were, fortifications built against the mind when vices grow up under the appearance of virtues and show themselves on high through an image, though they always lie low through their action. "You shall also heap up a mound." For when the mind has begun to desire heavenly things, malignant spirits through their temptations heap up earthly thoughts all the more against it. Therefore the prophet heaps up a mound when the holy preacher announces to good minds how earthly desires are accustomed to creep in. "And you shall set camps against it, and place battering rams round about." The teacher sets camps against the soul, as it were, when he points out the ambushes of malignant spirits gathered and united together against it, so that they may sometimes tempt not only from one vice, but from vices joined together at once. For there are certain vices that are closely related to one another by a kind of kinship, such as dissipation of spirit, appetite for gluttony, and the uncleanness of lust, as well as excessive talking, deceit, and perjury. For from dissipation of spirit the mind is swept away to the gorging of the belly, and when the belly is distended with food, the flesh is drawn captive to lust through pride. And again from excessive talking deceit is generated, because it is very difficult for one who speaks much not also to lie; and often a lie is even covered by perjury, so that it may be concealed before human judgments. Pride also can in no way exist without envy and vainglory. For every proud person envies others the honor that he himself seeks. And when he has perhaps obtained it, he is raised up in the elation of temporal glory, and what he sees others were unable to attain, he rejoices through vainglory to possess above all others. It should also be known that often certain vices do not come to the mind simultaneously, but are substituted one for another, so that one succeeds another in temptation. And one comes against the face, while another insinuates itself into temptation from the side, so that while one is being resisted, the mind, deceived, is captured by the other. For those very vices which we mentioned above often stealthily substitute themselves one for another, just as sometimes when we strive to conquer anger within ourselves, gentleness occupies the mind more than necessary, so that it fails to present the severity that ought to be shown to sinners. Often indeed, when incautious gentleness within us displeases us, zeal draws itself into fury and carries the captive soul beyond the limit of patience. Therefore, because vices come against the mind mixed together and united at once, rightly in the mouth of the preacher siege camps are set against the Jerusalem that has been described. And because sometimes individual vices strike the sense from here and there, battering rams are arranged in a circle. Therefore the preacher sets battering rams in a circle when he cautiously declares how softly lust strikes, how harshly impatience kills, how laboriously avarice inflames and destroys, how proudly pride extinguishes. Thus to place battering rams in a circle is to show by preaching which blades of the vices are accustomed to strike the soul from every side.

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.

Battering rams - כרים carim. This is the earliest account we have of this military engine. It was a long beam with a head of brass, like the head and horns of a ram, whence its name. It was hung by chains or ropes, between two beams, or three legs, so that it could admit of being drawn backward and forward some yards. Several stout men, by means of ropes, pulled it as far back as it could go, and then, suddenly letting it loose, it struck with great force against the wall which it was intended to batter and bring down. This machine was not known in the time of Homer, as in the siege of Troy there is not the slightest mention of such. And the first notice we have of it is here, where we see that it was employed by Nebuchadnezzar in the siege of Jerusalem, A.M. 3416. It was afterwards used by the Carthaginians at the siege of Gades, as Vitruvius notes, lib. 10 c. 19, in which he gives a circumstantial account of the invention, fabrication, use, and improvement of this machine. It was for the want of a machine of this kind, that the ancient sieges lasted so long; they had nothing with which to beat down or undermine the walls.

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.

forth--rather, "watch tower" (Jer 52:4) wherein the besieges could watch the movements of the besieged [GESENIUS]. A wall of circumvallation [Septuagint and ROSENMULLER]. A kind of battering-ram [MAURER]. The first view is best. a mount--wherewith the Chaldeans could be defended from missiles. battering-rams--literally, "through-borers." In Eze 21:22 the same Hebrew is translated "captains."