Ezekiel 4: The Siege of Jerusalem Prophesied

Ezekiel 4: The Siege of Jerusalem Prophesied

Collin Leong. July 13, 2025

(v1-17) Siege of Jerusalem Symbolized

(v1-3) God told Elijah to take clay to draw the city of Jerusalem on it. He is to erect a siege against it, with ramps, and camps, and battering rams. He is to place an iron pan as an iron wall between him and the city and turn his face towards it. This siege will be a sign to the people of Israel. 

Why did God symbolize the siege when Babylon had already exile these people? I believe the exiles still have hope that Jerusalem will be saved. They are in the second wave of exile in 597 BC, and they know that King Zedekiah is still in Jerusalem. They also know the Solomon temple is still standing. This gives them hope that there are still chances for them to return to Israel. But God intends to bring the third wave of exile (which happened in 586 BC) King Zedekiah and all the remaining Jews will be exiled. At that time the city and the temple will be destroyed. In a sense, this is a prophecy to Jews that they will not be able to go back until a very long time. 

The iron pan symbolize a wall of separation between God and Jerusalem. It's as if God is now distant during the judgment of the Jews. He's “behind the wall,” no longer accessible due to the people’s sin.

(v4-8) God told Ezekiel to lie on his left side and put the sin of the people of Israel upon himself. He will lie there for days equal to the years of their sin, which is 390 years. Next, he will lie on his right side for 40 days, which is the number of years of Judah's sin. He is to turn his face toward the siege of Jerusalem and prophesy against her. God will tie him up with ropes so that he cannot turn from one side to the other until he has finished the days of the siege. 

There are many interpretation of what the 390 years and 40 years of sin for the Israel's (the northern kingdom) sin and Judah's (the southern kingdom) sin. 

The likeliest explanation of the 390 years is from Jeroboams (the first king of Israel) apostasy (~928 BC) to the return of the Jews to Israel in ~538 BC, after King Cyrus release the Jews back to Israel to rebuild the temple. This prophecy use the starting point of northern kingdom sin, but ended it with the return of the southern kingdom to Israel. We don't know God's reason for doing this, but probably to point out that the sin of Israel is influential to the sin of Judah; The punishment is complete after the Jews returned to Jerusalem. In fact from then on, the Jews never worship idols ever again. 

It's more tricky to explain the 40 years of Judah's sin. If you take the destruction of the temple by the Babylonians (586 BC) and take way 40 years, you get 626 BC. This falls into the years of King Josiah's reform. (2 Kings chapter 22-23)

These are theories only, but the only that knows the truth is God himself. 

(v9-13) God told Ezekiel to take the ingredients to make bread for himself. He is to eat 20 shekels of food and eat it at set times during the 390 days. He should also measure a sixth of a hin of water and drink it at set times. He is to eat the bread, where he would bake in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel. The Lord said that this represents the people of Israel who will eat defiled food among the nations where He will drive them. 

(v14-15) Ezekiel told the Lord that he has never defile himself, from youth until now, he have never eaten anything found dead on torn by wild animals. No impure meat has ever entered his mouth. God said that if so, he can bake his bread over cow dung instead of human excrement.

It's clear that God is not asking Ezekiel to lie on his sides for 430 days without moving.  He was to enact this for certain times of the day only, for God has told him to cook, to drink and to bake bread and to eat. The rope that tied him up is only when enact the symbolic action. 

The amount of food Ezekiel can consume is 230 grams, and he can drink 0.6 liters of water per day. This is a very small amount of food. It symbolize the scarcity and suffering of the people during the siege. 

In fact they will be so hungry that they ate their own children. Deuteronomy 28:57 had warned them about this: “She will secretly eat them for lack of anything else during the siege and distress your enemy will inflict on you within your gates.” This verse is part of the curses for covenant disobedience, describing a refined woman resorting to eating her own children in desperation. (2 Kings 6:28-29 - a historical account of eating their children in the siege of Samaria, capital of the northern kingdom)

God told Ezekiel to bake a bread using the fire from human excrement to symbolize that the people will eat defile food when they are exiled to pagan nations. But Ezekiel said he has never eaten any unclean food in his life. He is pleading to God not to use human excrement that will make him eat unclean food.  God was willing to amend the command suggest that personal purity and integrity still matter, even in judgment. Cow dung, while not ideal, was acceptable fuel in ancient practices, especially when wood was scarce. 

(v16-17) God told Ezekiel that He will cut off food supply in Jerusalem. The people will eat rationed food in anxiety and drink rationed water in despair, as they will be scarce. They will be appalled at the sight of each other and will waste away because of their sin. 

God is prophesying the third wave of exile, which happened in 586 BC, about seven years after Ezekiel had his vision. Nebuchadnezzar II siege Jerusalem 30 months before exiling them. His strategy is make sure they don't have food and unable to fight back. At the same time, the famine became so severe that, as described in Jeremiah 52:6, "there was no food for the people of the land." The siege and the famine fulfilled God's prophecy.  When times get desperate, the people in Jerusalem ate their own children (who are mostly likely dead due to starvation). When the army unable to hold the walls, the Babylonians entered, destroyed the temple, razed homes, and completed the final exile.