Ezekiel 4:2

The Siege of Jerusalem Portrayed

1 “You also, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem.

2 ^aLay siege against it, build a ^bsiege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it; set camps against it also, and place battering rams against it all around.

3 Moreover take for yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it, and it shall be ^abesieged, and you shall lay siege against it. ^bThis will be a sign to the house of Israel.

4 “Lie also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.

5 For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; ^aso you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

Commentaries:

Barnes' Notes

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Ezekiel 4:2

Lay siege against it - The prophet is represented as doing that which he portrays. The leading features of a siege are depicted. See the Jeremiah 6:6 note.

The camp - Encampments. The word denotes various hosts in various positions around the city.

Fort - It was customary in sieges to construct towers of vast height, sometimes of 20 stories, which were wheeled up to the walls to enable the besiegers to reach the battlements with their arrows; in the lower part of such a tower there was commonly a battering-ram. These towers are frequently represented in the Assyrian monuments.

Battering rams - Better than the translation in the margin. Assyrian monuments Proverbs that these engines of war are of great antiquity. These engines seem to have been beams suspended by chains generally in moveable towers, and to have been applied against the walls in the way familiar to us from Greek and Roman history. The name "ram" was probably given to describe their mode of operation; no Assyrian monument yet discovered exhibits the ram' s head of later times.

**Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Ezekiel 4:2:**

Isaiah 37:25
Nahum 2:5
Habakkuk 1:10

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