CHAPTER 4. EZEKIEL'S FIRST MESSAGE - JUDGMENT IS COMING ON JERUSALEM. In this chapter we have an acted out prophecy against Jerusalem. The people had been brought into captivity but Jerusalem still stood. They still had hopes of returning. But they must be made to recognise that God's anger against... [ Continue Reading ]
“You also, son of man, you take a tile, and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem, and lay siege against it, and build forts against it. Set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it round about. And you take to yourself an iron pan, and set it as a wall betwee... [ Continue Reading ]
“Moreover lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. According to the number of days you will lie on it. You will bear their iniquity. For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days. So shall you bear... [ Continue Reading ]
“And you shall set your face towards the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered, and you will prophesy against it, and behold I lay bands on you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to another until you have accomplished the days of your siege.” The suggestion that he set his face to... [ Continue Reading ]
JERUSALEM WILL BE RIDDLED WITH FAMINE AND ITS INHABITANTS WILL DWELL AMONG THE NATIONS IN UNCLEANNESS. “Also take to yourself wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make of it bread for yourself. According to the number of days that you wil... [ Continue Reading ]
“And your food which you will eat will be by weight twenty shekels a day. Each day at the same time you will eat it.” Twenty shekels would come to about 225 grams (eight ounces). This was minimum rations indicating siege rations. ‘Each day at the same time you will eat it.' The Hebrew is literally... [ Continue Reading ]
“And you will drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin. Each day at the same time you will drink it.” As for food, so for water. He was allowed a little over 0.6 litres (a pint). This was hardly survival rations, but would often be necessary when under siege with water difficult to obtain. I... [ Continue Reading ]
“And you shall eat it as barley cakes, and you will bake it in their sight with excrement that comes out of a man.” ‘Barley cakes' indicates the poor man's food. They were, as described earlier, made up of a mixture of ingredients. It was to be ‘baked in their sight', possibly on heated stones or a... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And Yahweh said, “Even thus will the children of Israel eat their food unclean among the nations whither I will drive them.” ' The eating of food in this way would not only indicate the coming siege, it would also act as a reminder that because of their rebelliousness His people would be driven fr... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Then said I, “Ah, Lord Yahweh. Behold my life has not been polluted, for from my youth up, even until now, I have not eaten of what dies of itself, or is torn of beasts, nor came there any abominable flesh into my mouth.” ' Ezekiel had borne much without protest, but he was so appalled at the thoug... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Then he said, “I have given you cow's dung for man's excrement, and you shall prepare bread on it.” God allowed him to use cow dung instead of man's excrement. Cow dung was a recognised fuel used by many for cooking. Why then should God have required something that he knew would appal Ezekiel, and... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with carefulness, and they will drink water by measure and with dismay, that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniqu... [ Continue Reading ]