Ezekiel 4:4

Lie thou also upon thy left side,.... Some think this was not in reality, but in vision, as Kimchi observes; and so Maimonides (c); and in like manner they understand his eating and drinking by

Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.

Lie thou also; a posture which was to signify the settled resolution of the besiegers, who had taken up their abode till the siege were finished in taking Jerusalem. Upon thy left side, to note the less worthy part, the ten tribes, or Samaria, which was from Jerusalem toward the left hand, and was head of the ten tribes. Lay the iniquity; take upon thee in the representation thereof both guilt and punishment; bear both, not to expiate, but to exemplify what they should suffer. The house of Israel, distinguished from Judah; it is the ten tribes. According to the number of the days; by that proportion of time thou shalt know and intimate to them how long I have borne patiently with their sins, and how long they shall bear their own punishment. Thou shalt bear their iniquity; signifying that as the prophet in the sign, so God in very deed, had patiently borne with them.

Ezekiel 4:4 Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: [according] to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.Ver. 4. Lie thou also upon thy left side.] Which for so long a time to do, could not but put the prophet to great pain, and try his patience to the utmost, especially if he lay bound all the while, as Theodoret thinketh he did, to set forth Jerusalem’ s great miseries during the siege, or rather God’ s infinite patience in bearing with their evil manners with so perverse a people. Thou shalt bear their iniquity,] i.e., Represent my bearing it, and forbearing to punish them for it.

(4) Lie thou also upon thy left side.—Here a fresh feature of this symbolical prophecy begins, while the former siege is still continued (Ezekiel 4:7). Lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it.—The expression, to bear the iniquity of any one, is common in Scripture to denote the suffering of the punishment due to sin. (See, among many other passages, Ezekiel 18:19-20; Ezekiel 23:35; Leviticus 19:8; Numbers 14:34; Isaiah 53:12.) It is clear, therefore, that Ezekiel is here to represent the people as enduring the Divine judgment upon their sins. This may seem inconsistent with his representing at the same time the besiegers of Jerusalem, the instruments in the Divine hand for inflicting that punishment; but such inconsistencies are common enough in all symbolic representations, and neither offend nor in any way mar the effect of the representation. “The house of Israel” is here expressly distinguished from “the house of Judah,” and means the ten tribes. They are symbolised by the prophet’s lying on his left side, because it was the Oriental habit to look to the east when describing the points of the compass, and the northern kingdom was therefore on the left.

Verse 4. Lie thou also upon thy left side] It appears that all that is mentioned here and in the following verses was done, not in idea, but in fact. The prophet lay down on his left side upon a couch to which he was chained, Ezekiel 4:6, for three hundred and ninety days; and afterwards he lay in the same manner, upon his right side, for forty days. And thus was signified the state of the Jews, and the punishment that was coming upon them. 1. The prophet himself represents the Jews. 2. His lying, their state of depression. 3. His being bound, their helplessness and captivity. 4. The days signify years, a day for a year; during which they were to bear their iniquity, or the temporal punishment due to their sins. 5. The three hundred and ninety days, during which he was to lie on his left side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Israel, point out two things: the first, The duration of the siege of Jerusalem. Secondly, The duration of the captivity off the ten tribes, and that of Judah. 6. The prophet lay three hundred and ninety days upon his left side, and forty days upon his right side, in all four hundred and thirty days. Now Jerusalem was besieged the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah, 2Kg 25:1-2, and was not taken till the eleventh year of the same prince, 2Kg 25:2. But properly speaking, the siege did not continue the whole of that time; it was interrupted; for Nebuchadnezzar was obliged to raise it, and go and meet the Egyptians, who were coming to its succour. This consumed a considerable portion of time. After he had defeated the Egyptians, he returned and recommenced the siege, and did not leave it till the city was taken. We may, therefore, conclude that the four hundred and thirty days only comprise the time in which the city was actually besieged, when the city was encompassed with walls of circumvallation, so that the besieged were reduced to a state of the utmost distress. The siege commenced the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah; and it was taken on the ninth day of the fourth month of the eleventh year of the same king. Thus the siege had lasted, in the whole, eighteen months, or five hundred and ten days. Subtract for the time that Nebuchadnezzar was obliged to interrupt the siege, in order to go against the Egyptians, four months and twenty days, or one hundred and forty days, and there will remain four hundred and thirty days, composed of 390+40=430. See Calmet on this place. See also at the end of this chapter. See Clarke on Ezekiel 4:16.

4–6. Symbol of the people’s bearing their iniquity In the former symbol the prophet carried on the siege, representing the besiegers; here he changes his part and represents the besieged. This symbol is shewn contemporaneously with the former, of which it is but the inner side. He is commanded to lie first on his left side for a great number of days; thus he bears the iniquity of the Northern Kingdom. To bear the iniquity means to endure the punishment due to it. When the prophet is said to bear the iniquity of Israel, the meaning is that in his action he is a sign or symbol of the house of Israel bearing its iniquity. Lying on his side, held down as with cords (Ezekiel 4:8) and unable to turn he represents Israel pressed down and held in the grasp of the punishment of its iniquity. The left side represents the Kingdom of Israel, which lay to the left or north. The number of days during which the prophet lies on his side corresponds to the number of years during which Israel shall be bound under the weight of its iniquity (Ezekiel 4:5). Secondly, having finished the days for the Northern Kingdom the prophet has to lie on his right side forty days to represent Judah also bearing its iniquity for forty years. The right side is suitable to Judah, which lay on the south or right. The prophet being unable to lie on both sides at once has to lie first on one and then on the other. It is obvious, however, that the symbolism here is not quite exact. Israel and Judah bear the penalty of their iniquity for part of the time simultaneously. The period of bearing iniquity ends for both at the same moment, when both are restored together as the prophet hopes. Consequently Judah’s forty years are concurrent with the last forty years of Israel’s chastisement. The whole period is not 390 + 40 = 430, but 390 in all for Israel and the last 40 of that period for Judah. See on Ezekiel 4:6.

The siege being thus represented, the condition and suffering of the inhabitants is exhibited by the condition of one, who, bound as a prisoner or oppressed by sickness, cannot turn from his right side to his left.

4, 5. Lie thou also upon thy left side… three hundred and ninety days — LXX., one hundred and ninety days.