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“You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem.
Verse 1. Tile, very large. Calmet.—Those of Italy were two feet large and one broad. Pallad.—This might be soft clay; (Grot. Menochius.) or the siege might be marked out upon it with chalk or a sharp stile. Calmet.
Lay siege against it, build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it. Also set camps against it and plant battering rams against it all around.
Verse 2. Cast up. The ditch would be about three feet deep, and the earth being thrown up, people might approach the town with less danger. Worthington.—The besieged were thus also prevented from going out. 4 Kennicott. 25:1. Forts or towers were erected to overlook and clear the walls.—Rams. This is the first time we find them mentioned. Homer is silent about them; ( Calmet.) and the ancient sieges lasted so long, because people had not found out the art of demolishing the walls. Diod. ii.
Take for yourself an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city. Then set your face toward it. It will be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
Verse 3. Pan, or plate, on which bread was usually baked. This was to represent the walls of the city. Calmet.
“Moreover lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. According to the number of the days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.
Verse 4. Sleep. Hebrew “lie down.” Menochius.—He eat at intervals. Calmet.—Iniquities, or punishments. Bible.
For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
Verse 5. Three, and so forth S. Jerom says some “Vulgate,” ( Bible.) Latin, ( Calmet.) or rather incorrect Greek ( Bible.) copies read 100, others 150. See Origen, and so forth Calmet.—The Alex. copy has the former, ( Bible.) the Rom. edit. the latter number; and is followed by Theodoret and Maldonat. Calmet.—But the more accurate Septuagint agree with the Hebrew and so forth The captivity of Israel must be dated from Phacee, (4 Kennicott. 15:29) to the end of the reign of Darius Memnon, who espoused Esther, and granted liberty “to all the Jews;” or rather from Manathem, (4 Kennicott. 15:19) to the 28th of the same king Assuerus. Thus God’s “grace, we think, and we may so speak without arrogance, has enabled us to explain this difficulty, which no other has done.” Saint Jerome—Many confound the duration of the iniquity of Israel with that of Juda, forming 430 years; and they explain it of the time during which the nation had prevaricated. But this seems unnatural. We may rather conclude, that the prophet speaks of a separate judgment, and dates from the destruction of Samaria and of Jerusalem. The former city was taken A. 3283. If we add 390 years, we shall find the year 3673 the very year when Alexander overcame Darius, and soon after granted the Jews full liberty to return, or live according to their own laws. This he granted to those in Babylon, and to the Israelites ( Calmet.) in Media. Jos. Ant. xi. ult. & c. Ap. i.—Philadelphus afterwards liberated many in Egypt, (Jos. Ant. xii. 2.) as Osee (11:11) had foretold. The chastisement of Juda must be dated from the destruction of Jerusalem under Sedecias, till Darius, the Mede, favoured the Jews about forty years afterwards. Calmet.—S. Jerom only allows forty years to have elapsed from the first of Jechonias till the first of Cyrus. The want of an exact chronology gives rise to many such difficulties. Bible.—It is very hard to explain how the ten tribes were 390 and the two tribes 40 years in captivity, as it is certain that the latter were seventy year banished from their own country. Worthington.—Perhaps during the last thirty their condition was greatly ameliorated, after the decree of Cyrus, though the liberation was only perfect under Hystaspes and Esther. Bible.—The iniquity of Israel, from Solomon to Salmanasar, lasted 390 years; and that of Juda, under the reign of Manasses, was most abominable for the space of forty years; (Tournemine) or it continued so long from the 18th of Josias till the 4th, after the city was destroyed, and the land became a desert. Usher, A. 3380 to 3420.—But how shall the reign of the virtuous Josias be included in this period? Bible.—The action of the prophet lying 430 days, denoted the length of the siege of Jerusalem, during which extreme scarcity should be felt, and also the captivity of the people. Some have thought that he could not remain 390 days on one side, and that all passed in spirit. But what impression would that make upon the people? He was chained down, ( Calmet.) to represent their miserable condition. Bible.—Prædo saw a fool who lay tied in one posture for above fifteen years. Calmet.—The remaining so long in one posture must have been painful to the prophet. Tirinus.
“Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have appointed forty days, each day for a year, to you.
You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it.
Verse 7. Siege, which shall be most terrible; ( Bible.) 390 days: the pillage shall last other forty. Tirinus.—So many years have the people transgressed.—Out. Hebrew “naked.” Thus various barbarians fight.—Prophesy, not by words, (Calmet. 8:16) but by actions. Menochius.
Behold, I put ropes on you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your siege.
“Take for yourself also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel. Make bread of it. According to the number of the days that you will lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it.
Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time you shall eat it.
Verse 10. Staters, sicles, each being equal to 9 dwt. 2.57 gr. Eng. The hin contained 1 gal. 2 pints. Arbuthnot. Bible.—He had an allowance of ten ounces a-day. Calmet. Tirinus.
A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces.
You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin. From time to time you shall drink.
A hin is about 6.5 liters or 1.7 gallons.
You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.”
Verse 12. Barley, the worst or usual food of the poor. Bible.—Ashes, to denote hurry. Calmet.—Cover with hot ashes, ( Bible.) formed of dry excrements. Calmet.—That of oxen is still used in Egypt, (Val. ep. xi.) and in some parts of England, by the poor people. Hooke.—This was more tolerable, ( Calmet.) and God agrees to substitute it. verse 15. Hebrew “Thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and shalt bake,” (Prot.) or “hide it,” and so forth Septuagint Bible.—“The law itself, which the Jews read and do not understand, is this ember cake covered with human dung.” Philippians 3:8.—“They adore not idols, but do all for the belly and for earthly goods.” Saint Jerome
The LORD said, “Even thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.”
Verse 13. Filthy. Israel was less careful to avoid uncleannesses than Juda. Hence the prophet eats only during 390 days. Osee 9:3. Calmet.—While the city was pillage for forty days, the prisoners would procure better food. verse 7. Bible.
Then I said, “Ah Lord GOD! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals. No abominable meat has come into my mouth!”
Verse 14. Ah. He makes the same exclamation as Jeremias. 1:6. Hebrew aha. Theodot. “Oh!” Septuagint and Sym. “by no means.” Bible.—God forbid. Excrements make a person legally unclean. Deuteronomy 23:12. Calmet.
Then he said to me, “Behold, I have given you cow’s dung for man’s dung, and you shall prepare your bread on it.”
Verse 15. Neats, or “oxen;” boum. Prot. “cow’s dung.” Bible.—God allows him to bake his bread under such ashes. Calmet.—So great is his condescension towards his friends! Tirinus.
Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness. They will drink water by measure, and in dismay;
Verse 16. Staff. As this supports the weak, so bread nourishes all men, ( Worthington.) particularly the bread of life. Saint Jerome—Very little food, ( Calmet.) and that of a nauseous kind, ( Bible.) would be found during the siege. Calmet.
that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
Verse 17. When. Prot. “they may want bread and water, and be astonished one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.” Bible.