Ezekiel 4


Ezekiel 4 is the fourth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book is one of the Books of the Prophets and contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet/priest Ezekiel. In this chapter, following God's command, Ezekiel performs a sign-act, a symbolic representation of the siege of Jerusalem and resulting famine.

Text

The original text was written in Biblical Hebrew. This chapter is divided into 17 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis. Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including
1Q9 with extant verses 15–17; and 11Q4 with extant verses 3–6, 9–10.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BC. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Marchalianus.

The Siege of Jerusalem (4:1–8)

This part describes how Ezekiel enacts the Siege of Jerusalem, by first drawing a map of Jerusalem on a clay tablet or a brick, then building a model of the siege apparatus encircling the model city, and finally setting up an iron plate as a wall between the city and himself, facing the city to start the siege to it.

Verse 1

  • "Clay tablet" : or "brick", laterem in Pagninus' translation and in the Latin Vulgate edition.
  • "Portray on it": to draw the city of Jerusalem.

Verse 5

  • "390 days" signifies the 390 years of pre-siege punishment for Israel in the land. The Greek text has "190 years".

Verse 6

  • "40 days" signifies the 40 years of post-siege punishment for Judah in exile.

Famine (4:9–17)

In this part, Ezekiel acts out the role of Jerusalem's citizens, eating meager rations of food to symbolize famine, even baking cakes over dung to emphasize the severity.

Verse 9

  • "Millet and spelt": considered inferior kinds of wheat. These and other mentioned materials were commonly gathered for food in the area where Ezekiel was exiled.

Verse 10

  • "Twenty shekels": about, is the ration of bread per person per day, showing the great scarcity. "Shekel" is the standard for weighing in the ancient Near East; generally represents 11.5 grams.

Verse 11

Jewish

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Christian

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