41 'And thou, son of man, take to thee a brick, and thou hast put it before thee, and hast graven on it a city—Jerusalem, 2 and hast placed against it a siege, and builded against it a fortification, and poured out against it a mount, and placed against it camps, yea, set thou against it battering-rams round about. 3 And thou, take to thee an iron pan, and thou hast made it a wall of iron between thee and the city; and thou hast prepared thy face against it, and it hath been in a siege, yea, thou hast laid siege against it. A sign it 'is' to the house of Israel. 4 'And thou, lie on thy left side, and thou hast placed the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; the number of the days that thou liest on it, thou bearest their iniquity. 5 And I—I have laid on thee the years of their iniquity, the number of days, three hundred and ninety days; and thou hast borne the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6 And thou hast completed these, and hast lain on thy right side, a second time, and hast borne the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days—a day for a year—a day for a year I have appointed to thee. 7 'And unto the siege of Jerusalem thou dost prepare thy face, and thine arm 'is' uncovered, and thou hast prophesied concerning it. 8 And lo, I have put on thee thick bands, and thou dost not turn from side to side till thy completing the days of thy siege.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ezekiel 4:1-8
Commentary on Ezekiel 4:1-8
(Read Ezekiel 4:1-8)
The 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 the children of his people, about the destruction of Jerusalem, is to show that sin is the provoking cause of the ruin of that once flourishing city.