Ezekiel 4:3

Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. AN IRON PAN - symbolically representing the divine decree as to the Chaldean army investing the city. SET IT FOR A WALL OF IRON BETWEEN THEE AND THE CITY - Ezekiel, in the person of God, represents the wall of separation decreed to be between him and the people as one of iron, and the Chaldean investing army, His instrument of separating them from him, as one impossible to burst through. SET THY FACE AGAINST IT - inexorably (). The exiles envied their brethren remaining in Jerusalem; but exile is better than the straitness of a siege....

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....

Verse Ezekiel 4:3. _TAKE THOU UNTO THEE AN IRON PAN_] מחבת _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....

AN IRON PAN - Another figure in the coming siege. On Assyrian sculptures from Nimroud and Kouyunjik there are sieges of cities with “forts, mounts, and rams;” and together with these we see a kind of shield set up on the ground, behind which archers are shooting. Such a shield would be represented by the “flat plate” (margin). Ezekiel was directed to take such a plate (part of his household furniture) and place it between him and the representation of the city. A SIGN TO THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL - This “sign” was not necessarily acted before the people, but may simply have been described to them as a vivid representation of the event which it foretold. “Israel” stands here for the kingdom of Judah (compare Ezekiel 3:7, Ezekiel 3:17;...

EXPOSITION 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 the prophet in a state of ecstasy and afterwards reported by him to the people. Each view has been maintained by commentators of repute. I adopt, with scarcely any hesitation, the former, and for the following reasons. (1) On the other interpretation the acts recorded were not signs to the people (Ezekiel 4:3) till the prophet reported them; but the whole context shows that they were to be substitutes for spoken teaching. They belong to the period of the prophet's silence. (2) This mode of teaching, though not carried to the same extent, was part of the normal method of a prophet's work. Zedekiah's horns of iron ...

MOREOVER TAKE THOU UNTO THEE AN IRON PAN,.... Which Kimchi thinks, for its metal, represented the hardness of the hearts of the people of Israel; and, for its colour, the blackness of their sins: though others are of opinion, this being a pan in which things are fried, it may signify the miseries of the Jews in captivity; the roasting of Ahab and Zedekiah in the fire, and particularly the burning of the city: others, the wrath of God against them, and his resolution to destroy them: but rather, since the use of it was as follows, AND SET IT [FOR] A WALL OF IRON BETWEEN THEE AND THE CITY, it seems to represent all such things as are made use of by besiegers to screen them from the besieged; such as are now used are trenches, parapets, bastions, c. for the prophet in this type is the besieger, representing the Chaldean army secure from the annoyance of those within the walls of the city:...

Ezekiel 4:1. The word tile means “brick.” They were used by the Babylonians to preserve their records, and many have been found marked with building plans, etc. The sign of the tile foretells the siege of Jerusalem and Jehovah's opposition against the city. Ezekiel 4:4. While in the preceding sign Jehovah's action against Jerusalem was pictured, in this new sign a portrayal is given of the punishment which should come upon the inhabitants of the city. In his own person Ezekiel had to experience the great degradation and judgment which was to fall upon all the people. The critical school has invented all kinds of theories to explain, or rather to explain away, the divine command given to the prophet. They say that probably Ezekiel suffered from some form of epilepsy or catalepsy; they also point out the physical

EZEKIEL 4, 5. FOUR SYMBOLS, PROPHETIC OF THE COMING DOOM OF JERUSALEM. Ezekiel 4:1. (A) THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM But if Ezekiel may not speak, he is a prophet still, preaching, if not by the word, at least by symbolic action; and, ominously enough, his first message is the announcement of the siege of Jerusalem and this, be it remembered, four and a half years before that siege began. How the message came to his own soul, we cannot explain except on his own assumption, that it was the voice of God: its truth was certainly justified by the sequel. He sets forth the truth symbolically by portraying upon a brick (such as the Babylonians used for writing upon) a walled city exposed to a furious siege from surrounding forts, mounds, and battering rams....

PAN. a flat plate, as used for baking. SET THY FACE. Ref to Pentateuch (Leviticus 17:10; Leviticus 20:3; Leviticus 20:5; Leviticus 20:6; Leviticus 26:17). App-92. Compare Jeremiah 21:10; Jeremiah 44:11. THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL. See note on Exodus 16:31. To

Ezekiel 4:1-3. Symbolical siege of Jerusalem The prophet is commanded to take a brick (it is to be supposed still soft) and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem. Around the city he is to draw representations of siege operations, towers, a mound, camps and battering-rams. Between him and the city he is to set an iron plate to represent an iron wall. The determination of the besiegers is shewn by his attitude, he sets his face against the city. All this is symbol of a hard siege, carried on with great determination and apparatus against a lofty city....