Ezekiel 4:2

a fort against it The word is always used in the sing., though sometimes rightly rendered forts(2 Kings 25:1), as the term is the name of a classof offensive siege works. The work was probably a species of tower, of which a number might be erected "round about" the walls (2 Kings 25:1), and was used as a station for archers, or to discharge projectiles from (cf. LXX. ch. Ezekiel 17:17). Towers of this kind, manned by archers are seen on the Assyrian bas-reliefs. Layard, Nin. and Bab. p. 149.

cast a mount The "mount" or mound was an embankment raised till the besiegers standing on it were on a level with the top of the wall and able to command the streets of the city, cf. Lamentations 4:18. See Isaiah 37:33; Jeremiah 6:6; Jeremiah 32:24.

set the camp set camps, detachments of soldiery.

battering rams These were beams of wood with a head of iron, suspended by chains or ropes from a cross plank, and swung with great force by a number of men against the walls to batter them down. The term "round about" indicates that they were applied to different parts of the wall, perhaps where it might be thought weakest. It is not probable that the siege works were also engraved upon the brick. The latter rather by its elevation above the ground represented the city, and the siege works would be upon the ground, if we are to suppose them anywhere. But as the whole is a creation of the imagination it may be doubtful if the prophet was so precise or consistent as to put to himself the question where the siege works were placed.