PHIL HARRIS | Seeker of Truth |
Introduction
God has called Ezekiel to a unique and pivotal job: he is to prophecy the siege and destruction of Jerusalem as well as to foretell God’s covenant faithfulness to rebuild and restore it in the future. In chapters 4 and 5 we learn of the coming siege of Jerusalem. In chapter 4, God asks Ezekiel takes on the role of bearing Israel’s iniquity during the siege.
The people are in rebellion against God, yet the false prophets keep saying they will soon return to Jerusalem and their homeland without having yet repented. Ezekiel’s role as God’s Watchman is to continue what the prophet Jeremiah had been warning would happen unless they repented:
For thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Cut down her trees And cast up a siege against Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished, In whose midst there is only oppression.”—Jeremiah 6:6
Ezekiel’s ministry now begins by focusing on what is going to happen to the city of Jerusalem, including the people and the temple that had not yet been destroyed.
Not until the end of this chapter, however, is Ezekiel given a clear explanation from God that the intense suffering He is asking Ezekiel to undergo is going to be a portrayal of what will happen to Jerusalem and the people trapped within the city.
A Brick and an Iron Plate
We find Ezekiel outside of his home performing God’s instructions where the people can see and observe what he is doing.
“Now as for you, son of man, get yourself a brick, set it before you, and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem.Then set a siege against it, build a siege wall against it, raise up a ramp against it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams against it all around. Now as for you, get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and establish your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel.—Ezekiel 4:1-3
The brick represents the wall of the city of Jerusalem. Ezekiel is to set up toy models of various types of siege equipment, acting out an attack on the city wall. Furthermore, this role-playing is about what will happen to all the rebellious people still living in Jerusalem. The iron plate probably represented an unbreakable barrier that the people in the city could not escape from. It could also have been used to bake the bread he was going to be eating.
“Now as for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it.Now I have set a number of days for you corresponding to the years of their iniquity, 390 days; thus you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.And you shall complete these, and you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have set it for you for forty days, a day for each year.—Ezekiel 4:4-6
Ezekiel is instructed to lie on his left side bearing the iniquity of Israel the northern kingdom for 390 days which is to represent 390 years of their iniquity before they went into exile. Then he is to do the same thing on his right side for 40 days of Judah’s iniquity of 40 years. These timeframes obviously don’t correspond to all the years they Israelites had been unrepentant sinners.The 390 days possibly represent the period of time from Solomon’s unfaithfulness to God until the fall of Jerusalem. The 40 days possibly represent the egregious apostasy during Manasseh’s reign before his repentance.
While acting out this “living metaphor” of God’s judgment on His people, Ezekiel is attending to his own personal needs, including the starvation diet he will be preparing and eating.
Then you shall establish your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it. Now behold, I will set ropes upon you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.—Ezekiel 4:7-8
Then Ezekiel is to face toward the brick representing Jerusalem and hold up his bare arm. This demonstrates that the strong arm of God is active and unrestrained during the coming siege and the fall of the city of Jerusalem. After that Ezekiel will be bound by God until the days of his acted-out siege is completed. This difficult, painful, and supported-by-God position that Ezekiel is to maintain portrays that the rebellious people in Jerusalem have no way to escape. Their suffering is God’s judgment; they cannot bargain their way to of God’s judgment, and they cannot outwit God’s decreed plan. They will be destroyed.
Bread and Water
All the while Ezekiel will have nothing but bread and water for his diet. This near-starvation diet on which Ezekiel will have to survive will be a literal representation of what life is going to be like in Jerusalem during the siege.
“Now as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; set them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, 390 days.—Ezekiel 4:9
These grains will become a bread Ezekiel will prepare and eat for 390 days.
And your food which you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time.The water you drink shall be the sixth part of a hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time.—Ezekiel 4:10-11
A shekel would be equal to 8 ounces of bread and a sixth part of a hin would be about a pint of water. This would simply be a starvation diet.
Defiled Bread
You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung.” Then Yahweh said, “Thus will the sons of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations where I will banish them.”—Ezekiel. 4:12-13
In the actual siege the people will have nothing but human dung for fuel to bake their bread. This may extend to when they are banished among the nations. Almost certainly they will not be able to obtain ceremonially clean food in the nations of their exile. God’s protective food restrictions that kept Israel from having fellowship with the Canaanites will be useless, anyway, since God’s judgment on Israel will be to make them slaves of an unclean people. Their ceremonial separateness will be overruled by God’s judgment on them.
But I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, I have never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any offensive meat ever entered my mouth.”Then He said to me, “See, I will set for you cow’s dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread.”—Eze. 4:14-15
Ezekiel obviously objects to the use of human dung for fuel in his play-acting. He is ceremonially and ritually sensitive, and human dung would make his own meals unclean. So the Lord graciously relents and allows him to use cow’s dung instead. (Cow’s dung was a common fuel in the ancient Near East for baking.)
Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they will drink water by measure and in desolationbecause bread and water will be lacking; and they will be in desolation with one another and rot away in their iniquity.—Ezekiel 4:16-17
God instructs Ezekiel to act out the impending siege of Jerusalem, emphasizing the ugly severity of the famine that will befall the people. What is about to happen to Jerusalem and its inhabitants is the fulfillment of the Mosaic covenant stipulations of blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. Notice what God had told them in Leviticus 26:23–26:
‘And if by these things you do not accept My discipline, but walk in hostility against Me,then I will walk in hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike you seven times for your sins.I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you so that you shall be given over into enemy hands.When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread by rationed weight so that you will eat and not become full.—Leviticus 26:23-26
God’s declared consequences if Israel would rebel against Him was about to come true exactly as He said it would.
Timeline Leading to the Destruction of Jerusalem
- In 605 BC Jerusalem first fell to the Babylonians. The resulting exile took the first wave of Jews, including Daniel, into Babylon.
- In 597 BC Jerusalem again fell to the Babylonians. This invasion took the second wave of Jews, including Ezekiel, outside the city of Babylon to work as slaves farming the land.
- In 593 BC Ezekiel began his prophetic ministry which foretold the coming fall of Jerusalem, the subject of this and the next chapter of Ezekiel.
- In 586 BC Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians for the last time. The city, including the temple, were destroyed. This destruction took the third wave of Jews into Babylon as slaves.
- From 586 BC until May 14, 1948, Israel had not been an independent, sovereign nation. Even after the exile when Israelites returned to the land and rebuilt the city and the temple, they were under the authority of gentile empires: first Persia, then Greece, and finally Rome.
Summary
- Ezekiel is instructed by God to act out the coming siege and destruction of the city of Jerusalem. Since he remains mute, his performance is what we would call that of a modern day mime.
- All of his actions have meaning, and since his audience is to see what he is doing, he must be outside his home.
- The first step is to set up a brick with the name of Jerusalem written on it. This is to indicate that Jerusalem will be under siege for a third time.
- Now Ezekiel is to make bread of many grains. Such a bread is not a normal recipe, indicating a food that is made up of whatever can be found by starving people. The fuel Ezekiel uses is animal dung which in reality, during the coming siege, will be exchanged for human dung. This means that there will be no fuel for baking bread for the people trapped in the siege. Ezekiel is to act out the coming suffering for 390 days representing the iniquity of the house of Israel, and 40 days representing the iniquity of the house of Judah. This prophecy-in-mime indicates the length of the coming siege.
- The amount of water Ezekiel is to drink during the days of his suffering is also rationed, indicating that water will be in short supply during the actual siege of Jerusalem.
- For Ezekiel this amount of drinking water would also normally be a problem because, without God’s provision, you cannot live on such a small amount of water per day in the Babylonian desert heat.
- Ezekiel’s miraculous good health during a period of 390 days should show his rebellious audience that this is a true message from God.
—All references unless otherwise stated are taken from the LSB.
- Ezekiel 4: Ezekiel Bears Israel’s Iniquity - May 14, 2026
- Ezekiel 3: God’s Watchman - March 26, 2026
- Ezekiel 2: Lamentations and Mourning and Woe - February 5, 2026