Ezekiel 4:4-8

II. PARABLE OF ISRAEL'S SIN 4:4-8

TRANSLATION

(4) And as for you, lie upon your left side, and set the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. The number of days in which you lay upon it you shall bear their iniquity. (5) For I have appointed to you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of days, three hundred ninety days. So shall you bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. (6) When you have finished these days, then lie a second time upon your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days; one day for each year I have appointed you. (7) So unto the siege of Jerusalem you shall set your face, and your shoulder shall be uncovered, and you shall prophecy against it. (8) And behold I have placed bands upon you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

COMMENTS

In Ezekiel 4:1-3 Ezekiel impersonated Jerusalem's enemies; his role is now reversed. Here Ezekiel symbolizes the apostate people of God. He is to lie first on his left side, then on his right side, to bear the iniquity of the house of Israel and the house of Judah. The Oriental habit was to face eastward when indicating points of the compass.[144] Facing east one has north on his left side and south on his right. Hence the left side represented the house of Israel, the Northern Kingdom which had been carried captive in 722 B.C. The right side symbolized the house of Judah, the Southern Kingdom which was in its dying days at the moment Ezekiel received this revelation. The number of days which the prophet spent on each side symbolized the number of years which each kingdom had stood under the condemnation of God.

[144] Feinberg, PE, p. 33.

A few observations about this action parable need to be made before the difficult question of the numbers found here is taken up:
1. The action of the prophet in lying first on the one side and then on the other was commanded by God. Therefore there is no reason to suspect that Ezekiel suffered from epileptic seizures or catalepsy.

2. Ezekiel 4:4 seems to suggest that the time periods here indicated do not represent the time of Israel's sinning, but the period during which the people of God had been or would be punished for their sins.

3. The longer period of punishment for Israel, the Northern Kingdom, indicates the greater guilt of that nation.
4. Part of the time Israel and Judah bore the penalty of their sin simultaneously. That is to say, the period of punishment overlapped.
5. The end of the period of punishment was the same for both kingdoms 539 B.C.
6. In dealing with prophetic numbers one must allow for approximations or rounding off to figures.
7. Such great diversity of opinion exists as to the terminus a quo of the figures here given that dogmatic assertions are out of place.

8. Inherent in these figures is a hint of hope. The period of punishment, though long and terrible, would not be inter minable.
9. It is not necessary to assume that Ezekiel was in the prone position day and night. Other activities are said to have been performed during this period. Hence the symbolic prone position must have lasted only part of each day.
Ezekiel was to lie on his left side 390 days. If the Hebrew text be retained as is, there seems to be only one possible terminus a quo for this period, viz., the division of the Hebrew kingdom in 931 B.C. Allowing for round figures something very common in prophecy the 390 years would terminate with the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C. Through that entire period the citizens of the Northern Kingdom were under the wrath of God because of their apostate activities.[145]

[145] Many modern writers prefer to follow the Greek text which gives 190 as the figure here. From the fall of Samaria in 722 B. C until the time of Ezekiel's vision was about 150 years Add to this the 40 years mentioned in Ezekiel 4:6 and the figure 190 is reached However, it is more likely that the Greek translators deliberately altered the text. There is no logical explanation of how any accidental change in the text could have occurred here.

From what point are the 40 years of Judah's punishment to be counted? The figure 40 is reminiscent of the period of Israel wandering in the wilderness. It seems more in accordance with the other signs in this book to suppose that these years represent not that which had already transpired, but that which was yet to be. From the final deportation of Jews to Babylon in 582 B.C. (Jeremiah 52:30) until the fall of Babylon and the end of the Babylonian exile in 539 B.C. is a period of 42 years. The prophet is probably referring to this period with the symbolic number 40, the period during which God's people, because of their sin, would be denied access to the Promised Land.

Another view worthy of note is that of Currey who sees in these figures a purely symbolic significance. The two figures combined yield 430 years. This may be a representation of the future in terms of the past. Just as Israel was 430 years in Egyptian bondage, so would they now be in bondage in Mesopotamia.[146] A correlation may also exist between the 40 years punishment assigned to Judah and the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness during the Exodus from Egypt.[147]

[146] Currey. BC, pp. 33-34. Hoses had predicted already that Ephraim would again suffer the misery of bondage in a strange land. See Hoses Ezekiel 8:13; Ezekiel 9:3.

[147] Ellison, (EMM, p. 34) argues for this connection.

In his prone position Ezekiel was to bear the iniquity of the two kingdoms. The term iniquity in the Old Testament can refer to the sin itself or the punishment that comes upon that offense. In the present passage the term seems to have the latter connotation. Ezekiel is to symbolize through his personal suffering of physical restraint the punishment of God's people in being cut off from the Holy Land and the Temple. This symbolic suffering is by no means to be equated with the vicarious suffering which is set forth in Isaiah 53.

During the entire time that he was lying on his side Ezekiel was to fix his gaze upon the tile which depicted the besieged city of Jerusalem. The fixing of the gaze indicates steadfastness of purpose. He was to have his arm uncovered like a warrior prepared for battle (cf. Isaiah 52:10). By these actions he would be prophesying against Jerusalem (Ezekiel 4:7).

Ezekiel 4:8 underscores the discomfort which Ezekiel must have experienced while carrying out this symbolic act. He was not to turn from one side to another. There may be a hint of special divine aid in the statement I lay bands upon you.[148]

[148] Taylor (TOTC, p. 81) takes the expression literally, and pictures Ezekiel's body trussed with cords during his daily period upon his side.

Some scholars find difficulty in fitting the 430 days of this action parable into the chronology of the early ministry of Ezekiel. Ellison argues that this action parable must be fitted into the year and two months which elapsed between Ezekiel 1:2 and Ezekiel 8:1. According to the Jewish system of reckoning time, this would be equivalent to 413 days.[149] Ellison therefore argues that the 40 days on the right side must have been concurrent with the last 40 days of the 390 days on the left side.[150] However, the text certainly gives the impression that the 430 days of prostration were consecutive 390 on the left side followed by 40 on the right side. In the fulfillment of this prophecy the 40 years of Judah's punishment was in fact concurrent with the last 40 years of Israel's punishment. But in the symbolic action performed by Ezekiel the days seem to be consecutive. Therefore, one must conclude either (1) that during the period between Ezekiel 1:2 and Ezekiel 8:1 a month had been intercalated (see note 12); or (2) that the symbolic prostration extended beyond the time stipulated in Ezekiel 8:1. Of course, if the prophet's prostration occurred only in a vision as some scholars contend, it would not be necessary to fit the 430 days into the chronology of Ezekiel's life.

[149] The Jewish year was a lunar year of 354 days. Periodically an extra month was intercalated so as to bring the lunar calendar into harmony with the seasons. If the year which elapsed between Ezekiel 1:2 and Ezekiel 8:1 was such a leap year, the maximum number of days would be 442.

[150] Ellison, EMM. p. 34.