Ezechiel 4:1

Romanian Cornilescu Translation

,,Şi tu, fiul omului, ia o cărămidă, pune -o înaintea ta, şi sapă pe ea cetatea Ierusalimului.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

take: Ezekiel 5:1-17, Ezekiel 12:3-16, 1 Samuel 15:27, 1 Samuel 15:28, 1 Kings 11:30, 1 Kings 11:31, Isaiah 20:2-4, Jeremiah 13:1-14, Jeremiah 18:2-12, Jeremiah 19:1-15, Jeremiah 25:15-38, Jeremiah 27:2-22, Hosea 1:2-9, Hosea 3:1-5, Hosea 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: Jeremiah 6:6, Jeremiah 32:31, Amos 3:2

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 28:52 - General 2 Kings 13:18 - Smite 2 Kings 25:1 - pitched Jeremiah 43:9 - great Jeremiah 52:4 - pitched Ezekiel 2:1 - Son Ezekiel 3:24 - Go Ezekiel 5:2 - the city Ezekiel 5:5 - This Ezekiel 21:19 - General

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile,.... Or "brick" z. The Targum renders it, a "stone"; but a tile or brick, especially one that is not dried and burned, but green, is more fit to cut in it the figure of a city. Some think that this was ordered because cities are built of brick; or to show the weakness of the city of Jerusalem, how easily it might be demolished; and Jerom thinks there was some design to lead the Jews to reflect upon their making bricks in Egypt, and their hard service there; though perhaps the truer reason may be, because the Babylonians had been used to write upon tiles. Epigenes a says they had celestial observations of a long course of years, written on tiles; hence the prophet is bid to describe Jerusalem on one, which was to be destroyed by the king of Babylon;

and lay it before thee: as persons do, who are about to draw a picture, make a portrait, or engrave the form of anything they intend:

and portray upon it the city; [even] Jerusalem; or engrave upon it, by making incisions on it, and so describing the form and figure of the city of Jerusalem.

z לבנה "laterem", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Polanus. Piscator. a Apud Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 56.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A tile - Rather, a brick. Sun-dried or kiln-burned bricks were from very early times used for building walls throughout the plain of Mesopotamia. The bricks of Nineveh and Babylon are sometimes stamped with what appears to be the device of the king in whose reign they were made, and often covered with a kind of enamel on which various scenes are portrayed. Among the subjects depicted on such bricks discovered at Nimroud are castles and forts.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER IV

Ezekiel delineates Jerusalem, and lays siege to it, as a type

of the manner in which the Chaldean army should surround that

city, 1-3.

The prophet commanded to lie on his left side three hundred and

ninety days, and on his right side forty days, with the

signification, 4-8.

The scanty and coarse provision allowed the prophet during his

symbolical siege, consisting chiefly of the worst kinds of

grain, and likewise ill-prepared, as he had only cow's dung for

fuel, tended all to denote the scarcity of proviswn, fuel, and

every necessary of life, which the Jews should experience during

the siege of Jerusalem. 9-17.

NOTES ON CHAP. IV

Verse Ezekiel 4:1. Take thee a tile — A tile, such as we use in covering houses, will give us but a very inadequate notion of those used anciently; and also appear very insufficient for the figures which the prophet was commanded to pourtray on it. A brick is most undoubtedly meant; yet, even the larger dimensions here, as to thickness, will not help us through the difficulty, unless we have recourse to the ancients, who have spoken of the dimensions of the bricks commonly used in building. Palladius, De Re Rustica, lib. vi. c. 12, is very particular on this subject:-Sint vero lateres longitudine pedum duorum, latitudine unius, altitudine quatuor unciarum. "Let the bricks be two feet long, one foot broad, and four inches thick." Edit. Gesner, vol. iii. p. 144. On such a surface as this the whole siege might be easily pourtrayed. There are some brick-bats before me which were brought from the ruins of ancient Babylon, which have been made of clay and straw kneaded together and baked in the sun; one has been more than four inches thick, and on one side it is deeply impressed with characters; others are smaller, well made, and finely impressed on one side with Persepolitan characters. These have been for inside or ornamental work; to such bricks the prophet most probably alludes.

But the tempered clay out of which the bricks were made might be meant here; of this substance he might spread out a sufficient quantity to receive all his figures. The figures were,

1. Jerusalem.

2. A fort.

3. A mount.

4. The camp of the enemy.

5. Battering rams, and such like engines, round about.

6. A wall round about the city, between it and the besieging army.