Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, by R.A. Torrey, [ca. 1880], at sacred-texts.com
Ezekiel Chapter 4
Overview
Eze 4:1, Under the type of a siege is shewn the time from the defection of Jeroboam to the captivity; Eze 4:9, By the provision of the siege, is shewn the hardness of the famine.
take: Ezek. 5:1-17, Eze 12:3-16; Sa1 15:27, Sa1 15:28; Kg1 11:30,Kg1 11:31; Isa 20:2-4; Jer 13:1-14, Jer 18:2-12, Jer 19:1-15, 25:15-38, 27:2-22; Hos 1:2-9, Hos 3:1-5; Hos 12:10
a tile: לבנה [Strong's H3843], levainah generally denotes a brick, and Palladius informs us that the bricks in common use among the ancients were "two feet long, one foot broad, and four inches thick;" and on such a surface the whole siege might be easily pourtrayed. Perhaps, however, it may here denote a flat tile, like a Roman brick, which were commonly used for tablets, as we learn from Pliny, Hist. Nat. 1. vii. c. 57.
even: Jer 6:6, Jer 32:31; Amo 3:2
lay: Jer 39:1, Jer 39:2, Jer 52:4; Luk 19:42-44
battering rams: or, chief leaders, Eze 21:22
an iron pan: or, a flat plate, or slice, Lev 2:5
This: Eze 12:6, Eze 12:11, Eze 24:24-27; Isa 8:18, Isa 20:3; Luk 2:34; Heb 2:4
and lay: Kg2 17:21-23
thou shalt bear: Lev 10:17, Lev 16:22; Num 14:34, Num 18:1; Isa 53:11, Isa 53:12; Mat 8:17; Heb 9:28; Pe1 2:24
I have: Isa 53:6
three: This number of years will take us back from the year in which Judea was finally desolated by Nebuzar-adan, bc 584, to the establishment of idolatry in Israel by Jeroboam, bc 975. "Beginning from Kg1 12:33. Ending Jer 52:30.
forty days: This represented the forty years during which gross idolatry prevailed in Judah, from the reformation of Josiah, bc 624, to the same final desolation of the land. Some think that the period of 390 days also predicts the duration of the siege of the Babylonians (Eze 4:9), deducting from it five months and twenty-nine days, when the besiegers went to meet the Egyptians (Kg2 25:1-4; Jer 37:5); and that forty days may have been employed in desolating the temple and city. "Beginning from Kg2 23:3, Kg2 23:23. Ending Jer 52:30."
each day for a year: Heb. a day for a year, a day for a year, Num 14:34; Dan 9:24-26, Dan 12:11, Dan 12:12; Rev 9:15, Rev 11:2, Rev 11:3, Rev 12:14, Rev 13:5
and thine: Isa 52:10
I will: Eze 3:25
from one side to another: Heb. from thy side to thy side
millet: Dochan in Arabic, dokhn the holcus dochna of Forskal, is a kind of millet, of considerable use as a food; the cultivation of which is described by Browne.
fitches: or, spelt, Kussemim is doubtless ζεα, or spelt, as Aquila and Symmachus render here; and so LXX and Theodotion, ολυρα. In times of scarcity it is customary to mix several kinds of coarser grains with the finer, to make it last the longer.
three: Eze 4:5
Eze 4:16, Eze 14:13; Lev 26:26; Deut. 28:51-68; Isa 3:1
shalt drink: Eze 4:16; Isa 5:13; Joh 3:34
cakes: a "round" thing, Gen 18:6
Ah: Eze 9:8, Eze 20:49; Jer 1:6
my soul: Act 10:14
have I: Exo 22:31; Lev 11:39, Lev 11:40, Lev 17:15
abominable: Lev 19:7; Deu 14:3; Isa 65:4, Isa 66:17
cow's dung: Dried cow-dung is a common fuel in the East, as it is in many parts of England, to the present day; but the prophet was ordered to prepare his bread with human ordure, to shew the extreme degree of wretchedness to which the besieged should be exposed, as they would be obliged literally to use it, from not being able to leave the city to collect other fuel. Eze 4:15
I will: Eze 5:16, Eze 14:13; Lev 26:26; Psa 105:16; Isa 3:1
eat: The prophet was allowed each day only twenty shekels weight, or about ten ounces, of the coarse food he had prepared, and the sixth part of a hin, scarcely a pint and a half, of water; all of which was intended to shew that they should be obliged to eat the meanest and coarsest food, and that by weight, and their water by measure. Eze 4:10,Eze 4:11, Eze 12:18, Eze 12:19; Psa 60:3; Lam 1:11, Lam 4:9, Lam 4:10, Lam 5:9