A prophetic description of the siege of Jerusalem, and the famine that shall reign there.
The future siege of Ierusalem is discribed in a bricke. 4. The time of captiuitie of Israel, and of Iuda is signified by sleeping. 390. dayes on the left side, and fourtie on the right. 9. Famine is also signified by bread sprinkled with dung.
1And thou, O son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee: and draw upon it the plan of the city of Jerusalem.Tu figliuolo dell'uomo, prenditi un mattone, e te lo porrai davanti, e su questo disegnerai fa città di Gerusalemme.AND thou sonne of man take thee a bricke, & thou shalt put it before thee: and thou shalt draw in it the citie of Ierusalem.Et tu, fili hominis, sume tibi laterem, et pones eum coram te, et describes in eo civitatem Jerusalem. 2And lay siege against it, and build forts, and cast up a mount, and set a camp against it, and place battering rams round about it.E disporrai contro di essa un assedio, e vi fabbricherai delle torri, e ammasserai terra, e porrai alloggiamenti contro di essa, e all'intorno metterai gli arieti.And thou shalt lay siege against it, and shalt build munitions, and cast vp a bancke, and pitch campes against it, and place engines round about.Et ordinabis adversus eam obsidionem, et ædificabis munitiones, et comportabis aggerem, et dabis contra eam castra, et pones arietes in gyro. 3And take unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face resolutely against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it: it is a sign to the house of Israel.E tu prenditi una padella di ferro, e la porrai, qual muro di ferro, tra te, a la città, e la guarderai con occhio bieco, ed ella sarà assediata, e tu la circonderai. Questo è un segno per la casa d'Israele.And thou take thee an yron frying panne, and thou shalt set it as an yron wal betwen thee & the citie: and thou shalt set thy face stedely toward it, and it shal be besieged, and thou shalt compasse it: which is a signe to the house of Israel.Et tu sume tibi sartaginem ferream, et pones eam in murum ferreum inter te et inter civitatem: et obfirmabis faciem tuam ad eam, et erit in obsidionem, et circumdabis eam: signum est domui Israël. 4And thou shalt sleep upon thy left side, and shalt lay the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, according to the number of the days that thou shalt sleep upon it, and thou shalt take upon thee their iniquity.E tu dormirai sul tuo fianco sinistro, e porrai su di questo le iniquità della casa d'Israele per quel numero di giorni, ne' quali tu dormirai su di quel, e porterai le loro iniquità.And thou shalt sleepe vpon thy left side, and shalt put the iniquities of the house of Israel vpon it, according to the number of the daies, that thou shalt sleepe vpon it, and thou shalt take their iniquitie.Et tu dormies super latus tuum sinistrum, et pones iniquitates domus Israël super eo, numero dierum quibus dormies super illud: et assumes iniquitatem eorum.
5And I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days three hundred and ninety days: and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.Or io ti ho dato il numero di trecento novanta giorni per tanti anni della loro iniquità; e tu porterai l'iniquità della casa d'Israele.And I haue geuen thee the yeares of their iniquitie, according to the number of daies three hundred and ninetie daies: and thou shalt beare the iniquitie of the house of Israel.Ego autem dedi tibi annos iniquitatis eorum, numero dierum trecentos et nonaginta dies: et portabis iniquitatem domus Israël. 6And when thou hast accomplished this, thou shalt sleep again upon thy right side, and thou shalt take upon thee the iniquity of the house of Juda forty days: a day for a year, yea, a day for a year I have appointed to thee.E finiti questi giorni tu dormirai in secondo luogo sul tuo destro fianco, e porterai l'iniquità della casa di Giuda per quaranta giorni, un dì per un anno; perocché ho assegnato a te un di per un anno.And when thou hast accomplished these thinges, thou shalt sleepe vpon thy right side the second time: and thou shalt take the iniquitie of the house of Iuda fourtie daies. a day for a yeare, a day, I say, for a yeare I haue geuen thee.Et cum compleveris hæc, dormies super latus tuum dexterum secundo, et assumes iniquitatem domus Juda quadraginta diebus: diem pro anno, diem, inquam, pro anno, dedi tibi. 7And thou shalt turn thy face to the siege of Jerusalem and thy arm shall be stretched out: and thou shalt prophesy against it.E volgerai la tua faccia all'assediata Gerusalemme, e stenderai il tuo braccio, e profeterai contro di lei.And thou shalt turne thy face to the siege of Ierusalem, and thine arme shal be streched out: and thou shalt prophecie against it.Et ad obsidionem Jerusalem convertes faciem tuam, et brachium tuum erit extentum: et prophetabis adversus eam. 8Behold I have encompassed thee with bands: and thou shalt not turn thyself from one side to the other, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.Ecco che io ti ho cinto di catene, e tu non ti volterai da un lato all'altro fino a tanto, che tu abbi compiuti i giorni del tuo assedio.Behold I haue compassed thee with bandes: and thou shalt not turne thy self from thy side vnto the other side, til thou accomplish the daies of thy siege.Ecce circumdedi te vinculis: et non te convertes a latere tuo in latus aliud, donec compleas dies obsidionis tuæ.
9And take to thee wheat and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side: three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.E tu prendi del frumento, e dell'orzo, e delle fave, e delle lenti, e del miglio, e della vezza, e queste cose metti in un vaso, e ne farai dei pani secondo il numero de' giorni, ne' quali dormirai sul tuo fianco: ne mangerai per trecento novanta giorni.And thou take thee wheate and barley, and beanes, and lintiles, and millet, and fitches: and thou shalt put them into one vessel, and make thee loaues according to the number of the daies, that thou shalt sleepe vpon thy side: three hundred and ninetie daies shalt thou eate it.Et tu, sume tibi frumentum, et hordeum, et fabam, et lentem, et milium, et viciam: et mittes ea in vas unum, et facies tibi panes numero dierum quibus dormies super latus tuum: trecentis et nonaginta diebus comedes illud. 10And thy meat that thou shalt eat, shall be in weight twenty staters a day: from time to time thou shalt eat it.E quel, che tu mangerai per tuo nutrimento, sarà del peso di venti stateri per giorno: lo mangerai da un tempo all'altro.And thy meate, that thou shalt eate, shal be in weight twentie staters a day: from time to time thou shalt eate it.Cibus autem tuus, quo vesceris, erit in pondere viginti stateres in die: a tempore usque ad tempus comedes illud. 11And thou shalt drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time thou shalt drink it,E l'acqua berai a misura, la sesta parte di un hin; la berai da un tempo all'altro.And water by measure thou shalt drinke, the sixt part of an hin: from time to time thou shalt drinke it.Et aquam in mensura bibes, sextam partem hin: a tempore usque ad tempus bibes illud. 12And thou shalt eat it as barley bread baked under the ashes: and thou shalt cover it, in their sight, with the dung that cometh out of a man.E (il pane) lo mangerai cotto sotto la cenere come una schiacciata di orzo; e collo sterco umano lo cuoprirai sotto gli occhi loro.And as hearth baken barley bread thou shalt eate it: and with the dung that commeth out of a man, thou shalt couer it before their eies.Et quasi subcinericium hordeaceum comedes illud, et stercore quod egreditur de homine operies illud in oculis eorum. 13And the Lord said: So shall the children of Israel eat their bread all filthy among the nations whither I will cast them out.E disse il Signore: Così i figliuoli d'Israele mangeranno immondo il loro pane tralle nazioni, dov'io li caccerò.And our Lord said: So shal the children of Israel eate their bread polluted among the Gentils, to the which I shal cast them out.Et dixit Dominus: Sic comedent filii Israël panem suum pollutum inter gentes ad quas ejiciam eos. Et dixi:
14And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God, behold my soul hath not been defiled, and from my infancy even till now, I have not eaten any thing that died of itself, or was torn by beasts, and no unclean flesh hath entered into my mouth.E io dissi: Ah, ah, ah, Signore Dio, l'anima mia non è contaminata, e dalla mia adolescenza fino ad ora non mangiai d'animale morto da se, o sbranato dalle fiere, e nissuna sorta di carne immonda è entrata in bocca a me:And I said: A, a, a, ô Lord God, behold my soule is not polluted, & a dead thing, and thing torne of beastes I haue not eaten from mine infancie euen til this time, and al vncleane flesh hath not entered into my mouth.A, a, a, Domine Deus, ecce anima mea non est polluta: et morticinum, et laceratum a bestiis non comedi ab infantia mea usque nunc, et non est ingressa in os meum omnis caro immunda. 15And he said to me: Behold I have given thee neat’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt make thy bread therewith.Ed ei mi disse: Ecco che in cambio di sterco umano ti assegno sterco di bue, e con questo farai il tuo pane.And he said to me: Behold I haue geuen thee dung of oxen for mans dung, and thou shalt make thy bread therwith.Et dixit ad me: Ecce dedi tibi fimum boum pro stercoribus humanis, et facies panem tuum in eo. 16And he said to me: Son of man: Behold, I will break in pieces the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care: and they shall drink water by measure, and in distress.E mi disse: Figliuolo dell'uomo, ecco che io torrò a Gerusalemme il sostentamento del pane, e il pane mangeranno a once, e con apprensione, e l'acqua beranno a misura con afflizione;And he said to me: Sonne of man: Behold I wil breake the staffe of bread in Ierusalem: and they shal eate bread in weight, and in carefulnes: and they shal drinke water in measure, and in distresse.Et dixit ad me: Fili hominis, ecce ego conteram baculum panis in Jerusalem, et comedent panem in pondere et in sollicitudine, et aquam in mensura et in angustia bibent, 17So that when bread and water fail, every man may fall against his brother, and they may pine away in their iniquities.Talmente, che mancato il pane, e l'acqua, venga a cadere l'uno addosso all'altro, e si consumino nelle loro iniquità.That bread and water fayling, euerie man may fal against his brother, & they may pine away in their iniquities.ut deficientibus pane et aqua, corruat unusquisque ad fratrem suum, et contabescant in iniquitatibus suis.
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Year of the World 3409.
Calmet
Tile, very large. (Calmet)
Pallad
Those of Italy were two feet large and one broad. (Pallad.)
Calmet
This might be soft clay; (Grotius; Menochius) or the siege might be marked out upon it with chalk or a sharp stile. (Calmet)
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Worthington
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 Kings 25:1. Forts or towers were erected to overlook and clear the walls.
Diodorus ii
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. (Diodorus ii.)
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Calmet
Pan, or plate, on which bread was usually baked. This was to represent the walls of the city. (Calmet)
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Menochius
Sleep. Hebrew, "lie down." (Menochius)
Calmet
He eat at intervals. (Calmet)
Haydock
Iniquities, or punishments. (Haydock)
4:5
Calmet
Three, etc. St. Jerome says some "Vulgate," (Haydock) Latin, (Calmet) or rather incorrect Greek (Haydock) copies read 100, others 150. See Origen, etc. (Calmet)
Calmet
The Alexandrian copy has the former, (Haydock) the Roman edition the latter number; and is followed by Theodoret and Maldonat. (Calmet)
St. Jerome
But the more accurate Septuagint agree with the Hebrew, etc. The captivity of Israel must be dated from Phacee, (4 Kings 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 Kings 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." (St. 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 the year of the world 3283. If we add 390 years, we shall find the year 3673 the very year when Alexander [the Great] 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. Josephus, Antiquities xi. ultra et contra Apion 1:
Calmet
Philadelphus afterwards liberated many in Egypt, (Josephus, Antiquities 12:2.) 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)
Haydock
St. Jerome 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. (Haydock)
Worthington
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)
Haydock
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. (Haydock)
Usher
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, the year of the world 3380 to 3420.)
Haydock
But how shall the reign of the virtuous Josias be included in this period? (Haydock)
Haydock
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. (Haydock)
Calmet
Praedo saw a fool who lay tied in one posture for above fifteen years. (Calmet)
Tirinus
The remaining so long in one posture must have been painful to the prophet. (Tirinus)
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Tirinus
Siege, which shall be most terrible; (Haydock) 390 days: the pillage shall last other forty. (Tirinus)
So many years have the people transgressed.
Out. Hebrew, "naked." Thus various barbarians fight.
Menochius
Prophesy, not by words, (chap. 8:26.) but by actions. (Menochius)
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Haydock
Staters, sicles, each being equal to 9 dwt. 2.57 gr. Eng. The hin contained 1 gal. 2 pints. (Arbuthnot.) (Haydock)
Tirinus
He had an allowance of ten ounces a-day. (Calmet) (Tirinus)
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Haydock
Barley, the worst or usual food of the poor. (Haydock)
Calmet
Ashes, to denote hurry. (Calmet)
Calmet
Cover with hot ashes, (Haydock) formed of dry excrements. (Calmet)
Hooke
That of oxen is still used in Egypt, (Val. ep. xi.) and in some parts of England, by the poor people. (Hooke.)
Haydock
This was more tolerable, (Calmet) and God agrees to substitute it, ver. 15. Hebrew, "Thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and shalt bake," (Protestants) or "hide it," etc. (Septuagint) (Haydock)
"The law itself, which the Jews read and do not understand, is this ember cake covered with human dung." (Philippians 3:8.)
St. Jerome
"They adore not idols, but do all for the belly and for earthly goods." (St. Jerome)
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Calmet
Filthy. Israel was less careful to avoid uncleannesses than Juda. Hence the prophet eats only during 390 days, Osee 9:3. (Calmet)
Haydock
While the city was pillage for forty days, the prisoners would procure better food, ver. 7. (Haydock)
4:14
Haydock
Ah. He makes the same exclamation as Jeremias, 1:6. Hebrew aha. Theodotion, "Oh!" Septuagint and Symmachus, "by no means." (Haydock)
Calmet
God forbid. Excrements make a person legally unclean, Deuteronomy 23:12. (Calmet)
4:15
Haydock
Neats, or "oxen;" boum. Protestants, "cow's dung." (Haydock)
Calmet
God allows him to bake his bread under such ashes. (Calmet)
Calmet
So great is his condescension towards his friends! (Calmet)
4:16
St. Jerome
Staff. As this supports the weak, so bread nourishes all men, (Worthington) particularly the bread of life. (St. Jerome)
Calmet
Very little food, (Calmet) and that of a nauseous kind, (Haydock) would be found during the siege. (Calmet)
4:17
Haydock
When. Protestants, "they may want bread and water, and be astonished one with another, and consume away for their iniquity." (Haydock)
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Hin.... That is, a measure of liquids containing about ten pints.
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To make a banck, a ditch is also made, ordinarily aboue three foote depe, & so the earth cast vp towardes the towne besieged make couert passage about seuen foot in height by which trench men approch more safely towards the wal, where they purpose to make batterie, breach, and assault. It is very hard to explicate, how the tenne tribes were 390. yeares in captiuitie.
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And from what time the 40. yeares are counted, seing it is certaine, that the two tribes were in captiuitie. 70. yeares. See S. Ierom in Ezech.
4:16
As a staffe aydeth the weake, so bread sustaineth al men.
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Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 2.10
… lest, in being too little incensed against faults, of all faults he be himself held guilty. Whence it is well said to Ezekiel, Take unto thee a tile, and thou shalt lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city Jerusalem (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 37
And if the similitudes be mean, and of an ill sound, marvel not, for He was discoursing with a view to the weakness of His hearers. Since Ezekiel too mentions many similitudes like them, and unworthy of God’s majesty.
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St Hippolytus † AD 235 A discourse by the most blessed Hippolytus, bishop and martyr, on the end of the world, and on Antichrist, and on the second coming of our lord Jesus Christ 21
… For he says, “I shall make a covenant of one week, and in the midst of the week my sacrifice and libation will be removed.” For by one week he indicates the showing forth of the seven years which shall be in the last times.
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 40.1
… Isaiah goes naked without blushing as a type of captivity to come. Jeremiah is sent from Jerusalem to the Euphrates (a river in Mesopotamia), and leaves his girdle to be marred in the Chaldæan camp, among the Assyrians hostile to his people. Ezekiel is told to eat bread made of mingled seeds and sprinkled with the dung of men and cattle.
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Thessalonians 1
… Nevertheless He adds, “Though. Noah, Job, and Daniel stood.” (From Ezek. xiv .) And with good reason does He the rather say this to him, because it is he who suffered so many things. Thou badest me, he says, eat upon dung, and I ate upon it.
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1. A BRICK. — In which style with an iron stylus you delineate the city of Jerusalem, and around it a siege, that is the camps and machines of the Chaldeans besieging. For from bricks houses and cities are made. Again, a brick was more suitable for painting than stone. Thus R. David and Maldonatus. Symbolically Theodoret: A brick, he says, signifies the weakness of the inhabitants, who did not build their house upon a rock, but upon sand; and Origen: A brick, he says, are unlearned souls. Lyran and others note that a brick is taken here as raw, not yet baked and hardened by fire; otherwise the Prophet could not have described the city upon it, and its siege. Therefore Jerusalem besieged is a soul placed in sin, against which all the fortifications of divine justice are directed. But all these things are described upon a brick not baked, but raw, which is easily dissolved by water; so that we may understand that all the fortifications of divine wrath arranged against sinners can be dissolved by the tears of penance, and thus the whole accusation of the demon can be abolished. Again St. Gregory, book XXVI of the Morals, chapter v: 'The holy preachers, he says, arrange a siege around the brick in which the city of Jerusalem is described; when to an earthly mind, but now seeking the heavenly homeland, they demonstrate how much adversity of vices assails it in the time of this life.' The same St. Gregory more fully here in homily 12: 'Take, he says, for yourself a brick, namely the earthly heart of your neighbor. You will place it before you, namely so that you may guard his life and understanding with attentive mind. And you will describe upon it the city of Jerusalem, so that to him what are the heavenly joys from the vision of peace may be made known, etc. And you will arrange against it a siege. For, so that a soul may be able to attain to those eternal joys of peace, it must certainly endure here many contests of tribulations and temptations: whence preachers arrange a siege against the soul to be instructed, when by forewarning they indicate in what ways vices oppose virtues; how lust strikes chastity; how anger disturbs the tranquility of mind; how foolish joy dissolves the vigor of the mind; how much talking destroys the fortification of the heart; how envy kills charity; how pride digs out the citadel of humility, etc. And you will set camps against it, so that you may show how malign spirits tempt the soul, not from one, but from vices joined together at the same time.' To this pertains that saying of St. Jerome to Heliodorus: 'You err, brother, you err, if you ever think that a Christian does not suffer persecution. Then especially are you assailed, if you do not know that you are being assailed. This tranquility is a storm. For the life of man upon earth is a warfare,' as St. Job says, chapter VII. Let the saying of St. Cyprian animate us: 'Once, he says, he conquers who suffers immediately. But he who remaining always in pains is gathered together with sorrow, and is not conquered, is crowned daily.' For daily he undergoes a slow and long martyrdom. Thus he himself, book II, epistle 4. That he inscribes upon the brick of besieged Jerusalem a picture, in this he follows the custom of that time and region. Epigenes among the Babylonians teaches that observations of the stars for 420 years were inscribed upon baked bricks, Pliny relating it, Natural History, book VII, section LVII. And in that very tract, where it is credible that the Babylonian city was once situated, in our age a huge quantity of bricks has been dug from the earth, upon which writing consisting of wedge-shaped figures is inscribed; concerning which see Frid. Munter, Attempt on the Wedge-shaped Inscriptions at Persepolis, page 130 and following. Nor does this custom seem to have become entirely obsolete in the time of Jerome, since he himself says: 'For a brick, which in Greek is said in the feminine gender ἡ πλίνθος, Symmachus interpreted more clearly as πλινθίον, which we can call a small brick and a tablet. In the dust of which geometers are accustomed to describe γραμμάς, that is lines, and rays.' From whose words it is permitted to gather that it was not necessary for the Prophet to use a brick raw, not yet baked and hardened by fire, as some wish. the city to be destroyed, and its citizens to be most grievously tortured, then he plays the person both of God and of the Chaldeans besieging the city. Tropologically St. Gregory, homily 12: 'A frying pan, he says, is the frying of spiritual zeal, in which a preacher of the people burns with love of virtues against vices.' Such was Paul, saying: 'Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire? There is no such sacrifice to God as zeal for souls,' says St. Gregory ibid. Better St. Ambrose in Psalm XXXVIII, on this verse: "Thou hast made his soul to waste away like a spider": "They are sent, he says, into the frying pan of sinners, so that a certain flesh of sin may flow away, which had covered over the vigor of soul and mind, and as it were by a certain right, had infused the soul with certain enticements of desires. Therefore certain frying pans await us; for this reason let us here break our heart, so that it may become subtle, and lay aside all hardness and the fat of carnal filth." AND THOU SHALT BUILD A RAMPART,—a heap of earth piled up, likewise a congestion of stones, turf, and wood, so that you raise a fortification, from which as from a mountain siege engines might be discharged against the walls and citizens: or rather, "a rampart," by which namely the Chaldeans might protect themselves from the missiles of the Jews. For enemies about to besiege a city are accustomed to drive forward and advance ramparts before them, so that they may approach the walls unharmed. Thus Maldonatus. Thou shalt give,—you shall depict. For Ezekiel did not make all these things in reality, but painted them on his side. BATTERING RAMS.—Thus called a beam, which hanging from ropes and driven backward by those besieging, with iron prominent in front like a horn, as a ram struck and knocked down the walls and gates with great force. Pliny, book VII, chapter LVI, makes Epeus the author of this machine, who fabricated the Trojan horse (he says this was a battering ram), by which Troy was captured. See Josephus, book III of the War, chapter IX. The Chaldean translator rendered "battering rams" as "leaders." For just as rams lead the flock, so leaders lead the army.
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3. Take for yourself a griddle.—From this it appears that Ezekiel took a real griddle, and did not paint it on his side. A griddle,—in which meats, fish, eggs are fried, and if it is large, men; as Antiochus fried the Maccabees in it, II Maccabees VII, 5. Whence also the Syrian translator rendered it "a griddle of iron, made of iron"; the Arabic translator of Antioch, "an iron pan." You will ask, of what thing is this griddle a symbol? Maldonatus responds that it signifies the city Jerusalem; because a griddle is as it were surrounded by iron: but iron signifies the fortification of the city, because it seemed to be impregnable, as if it had iron walls; yet it will come to pass that it is conquered by the wrath of God, which is stronger than iron. But this is opposed by the fact that the Prophet is commanded to place this griddle between himself and the city: therefore it was not the city itself, but something in the middle between the city and the Prophet. Note therefore: First, the Prophet bearing the person of God, placed an iron griddle between himself and the side on which he had delineated Jerusalem, so that he might signify that as it were an iron wall was interposed between himself and the citizens, that is, that God and God's decree and sentence pronounced against them are inexorable, and that God will not hear the prayers and complaints of the citizens, or be bent by mercy. Thus Theodoret, Polychronius, St. Jerome, Vatablus and others. The griddle therefore is the atrocious crimes, which impede the way to God's mercy like a rock, Isaiah LIX, 2, or like a cloud, Lamentations III, 44, namely the hearts of the Jews, says Rabbi David, harder than iron, and fouler than soot, which make God, soft by nature, merciful and honeyed, hard and iron-like, and wring from him an iron decree of harsh punishment and vengeance. Second, this griddle signifies the city to be burned by fire, and the citizens to be most grievously tormented and as it were fried. The same is signified by the boiling pot of Jeremiah chapter I. THOU SHALT SET THY FACE,—both against the griddle and against the city, that is to say, with a severe and implacable countenance, as if inexorable, you shall look upon the city and the griddle; as a judge, who, when he is immovable from a sentence pronounced, regards it and the defendant with fixed eyes. Otherwise Polychronius and Kimchi, that is to say, you shall turn away from the city your face indignant and threatening downward. A sign to the house of Israel,—that is, this figure and delineation of Jerusalem besieged signifies truly that Jerusalem is to be besieged in a short time. He calls the Jews Israelites, because with the ten tribes already led away into Assyria, the whole progeny of Israel, that is of Jacob, consisted in the native land in Judah and the Jews, concerning which more presently.
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4. You shall sleep.—In Hebrew שכב, scekab, lie, recline. Therefore the Prophet did not sleep for 390 days; but awake he lay down, as if besieging, or rather watching the siege of the city. Thus we commonly say we sleep the whole night, that is, we lie in bed, even if many do not properly sleep for many hours, but keep watch, either on account of illness, or cares, or prayer. Upon your left side.—Appropriately Israel is placed on the left, because truly Samaria, that is the ten tribes, dwelt on the left with respect to Judah, says Polychronius and Rabbi Solomon. Second, Maldonatus: Judah, he says, is placed on the right, because it was more worthy, and had the priesthood and the kingdom: but Israel on the left, because it was baser, and because it was originally subject to Judah. You shall bear their iniquities.—So that thus lying for 390 days, you may bear, or rather bearing you may represent the punishment owed to the iniquities of the Israelites. For iniquity is put metonymically for the punishment of iniquity. AND THOU SHALT TAKE,—you shall sustain, you shall bear the punishments owed to their sins, and at the same time you shall beseech God on their behalf for pardon.
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5. The years of their iniquity, in number of days, — that is to say, For the years 390 of the iniquity of the Israelites, I give you the punishment of lying down for 390 days. But for the years truly 40 of the sins of Judah, you shall lie on your right side for the same number of days 40. Origens notes that some in the Septuagint version read 150 days, others 190, others 350. But the true reading is 390. Thus the Hebrew, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, St. Jerome and others. Where note the clemency of God, which for a year of sins gives a day of punishment. He punishes therefore far short of what is deserved. For God's punishment has to the fault that proportion which one day has to 365 days; for so many days does a year contain.
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7. TOWARD THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM YOU SHALL TURN YOUR FACE, — that is to say, In this lying down of yours, the side on which you have delineated the siege of Jerusalem, you shall gaze upon fixedly (thus the Hebrew), so that you may signify that all these wonderful things which you do are a portent of the most strict siege of Jerusalem, by which it shall be taken and destroyed. YOUR ARM SHALL BE STRETCHED OUT. — Thus the Roman version; that is, as the Hebrew, bared, extended; for to extend the arm is to bare it. For the tunics of men of old, thrown over the head and girded with a belt, scarcely covered the upper arms. Wherefore Father Africanus reproached P. Sulpicius Gallus, because he used sleeved tunics, as women do, says Gellius, book VII, chapter XVII. But especially soldiers of old were accustomed to fight with bared arms, which even now Africans and Indians do. The sense is, that is to say, You shall show your arm bared, as if you wished to fight fiercely and to invade the city. YOU SHALL PROPHESY, — not in words; for he was mute, as is evident from chapter III, 26, but by these deeds; namely by yourself and your gesture, you shall represent God attacking Jerusalem through the Chaldeans. Thus Prado.
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8. Behold I have bound you with chains, — I have made it so that your kinsmen and friends bind you as if you were mad; but bear patiently both their chains and my commands, so that you do not turn to another side, but fulfill the days of the siege of you, namely 390 and the other 40, by which you represent the siege of Jerusalem. Thus Vatablus, Prado and others, and it is gathered from chapter III, 25. Otherwise Maldonatus. For he himself thinks that Ezekiel was bound by God, so that he could not turn himself from one side to another, which interpretation is probable. Moreover this Prophet bears the person of the city, and of the citizens soon to be besieged and bound.
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9. And you take for yourself, etc., vetch. — Vetch is food for horses and cattle. St. Jerome in his Commentary translates it oats; Symmachus and Aquila, ζεας, that is to say spelt. The Prophet is commanded here to mix wheat, barley, millet, beans, vetch, etc., so that from these he may make vile and necessary breads of life 390, which he may eat one each for so many days, so that he may signify that there shall be such great famine in the besieged city, that the citizens do not seek delicacies, but bread, even made from lentil and vetch. Under 390 understand equally and 40 others, for the days 40 in which he was to lie on his right side; for neither could he fast for so many days at that time.
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10. BY WEIGHT. — That is, not as much as you wish and desire, but by a certain weight, as is customary in great famine of a besieged city. Moreover he prescribes to him a weight of 'twenty staters'; in Hebrew, twenty shekels. The shekel, as witnessed by St. Jerome and Josephus, weighed 4 drachmas: 8 drachmas make one ounce. Twenty staters therefore are 10 ounces, which do not yet make a pound (for a pound contains 12 ounces) of bread, by which therefore the soul is drawn on rather than sustained per day. It is therefore wonderful that Polycarp and Theodoret equate 20 staters to three ounces. Others equate 20 staters to 5 ounces; they think that the stater here is taken not whole, but halved, which was a quarter of an ounce. And this perhaps Theodoret and Polycarp wished, so that by a cipher they wrote 5, that is five, which copyists corrupted, writing 3, that is three; for the lapse from 5 to 3 is easy. For too little is given by 20 staters, since only three ounces are given by them; somewhat more, when five, for these contain forty drachmas. FROM TIME TO TIME YOU SHALL EAT IT, — namely from evening to evening, says St. Jerome; or, as Vatablus, from noon to noon. Otherwise Apollinaris, namely: from year to year, that is to say, Throughout the whole year daily you shall eat bread of ten ounces. IN THEIR SIGHT, — so that namely seeing, they may ask the reason for so wonderful a thing, and may learn the famine and calamity impending on the city and on themselves. Hence it is clear that these things were not done by imaginary vision, as Vatablus and some others wish, but in reality. Of which more presently.
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11. AND WATER BY MEASURE. — That is, not as much as you wish, but only a sixth part of a hin, namely two Italian sextarii. Exiguous therefore is this drink given to the Prophet, which only prevents death, so that he may signify the thirst that shall be in the besieged city. See what I have said concerning measures at the end of the Pentateuch.
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12. AS IF IT WERE BARLEY BREAD BAKED UNDER ASHES, YOU SHALL EAT IT, — that is to say, the bread which I have commanded you to eat, you shall not bake in an oven, as more respectable people bake it; but under ashes, as if rustic and barley bread, so that you may signify that there will be such great famine that men will not wait for bread to be baked in an oven, but will roast it under ashes, so that they may immediately devour it. Apollinaris adds that it signifies a scarcity of wood, so that they cannot kindle an oven for it, but are forced to use coals and ashes for baking bread. WITH THE DUNG THAT COMES OUT OF MAN, YOU SHALL COVER IT, — namely, while you bake it, as the Hebrew has it, under ashes of human dung. It signifies a scarcity of wood, and therefore, since dried cow dung (which rustics use to make fire when they lack wood) is lacking, it will be necessary to make fire with dried human dung, for baking bread, as rustics use turf. He does not therefore wish dung to be smeared on the bread, so that it be eaten with it, as the common people suppose; but only that it be baked with it. For this is the Hebrew עוג ug; whence עוגות uggot are called breads baked under coals and ashes. Hence also in verse 15, it is said: 'You shall make (that is, bake) your bread in it,' in cow dung; in Hebrew, upon it; just as libations are baked upon coals. Thus R. David, Marinus, Mercerus, Forsterus, Pagninus in the Lexicons, Pintus, Lyran, Vatablus, Maldonatus, Prado and others here. Whence the Arabic of Antioch translates: You shall roast it with human dung; the Arabic of Alexandria: You shall eat a cake ground upon human dung; the Syriac: You shall eat roasted bread upon human dung. By this matter the Prophet signifies that the Jews, both in the besieged city and in Babylon, were to eat horrible and unclean bread: for this unusual and abominable manner of baking bread portends it.
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13. YOUR BREAD POLLUTED. — Because bread made from various seed appears to have been unclean under the old law, as is expressly stated concerning a field in Leviticus XIX, 19. However, nothing is established there concerning bread; otherwise Ezekiel would have urged this law as an excuse to God, defending himself from this food. Bread is therefore called polluted on account of the foulness and stench of human dung; whence it was also abominable by law, Deuteronomy XXIII, 12. It signifies therefore that on account of famine in the siege they will have to eat similar filthy breads, which a man otherwise abhors. Note: Because the Jews worshipped idols, which in Scripture are called dung and filth, out of contempt and vileness; hence they are fittingly punished so that they devour their own filth. Thus also tropologically the gluttonous, drunkards and the libidinous are forced to digest their own debauchery and filth for a long time. I shall drive them out. — In Hebrew, I shall drive, namely, as if I drive a flock, to be slain in the midst of Jerusalem by the nations of the Chaldeans. He does not therefore speak of abduction into Babylon, as some wish; but of the siege and captivity of Jerusalem, as is evident from what precedes and follows. Thus Prado.
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14. A A A. — In Hebrew אהה aha, if you substitute a vowel for any consonant, it will be a, ha, ha, as it were a threefold abhorrence of polluted food and food forbidden by law. It is an interjection of one grieving, turning away, and beseeching. Whence Symmachus and the Septuagint translate it, by no means; Theodotion, O Lord God! At these commands of God, Ezekiel is struck down; because a man who loves brightness and decorum naturally abhors filth and dung. Wherefore Constantine the Emperor, the Iconoclast, was a prodigy of nature and a portent of filth, who delighted in this filth and its odor, and from this was surnamed Copronymus, that is, dung-man; in that when he was being baptized he emitted dung, and polluted the baptistry with it, as a sign that he was about to pollute the Church by his heresy, and the most pure Virgin Mother of God by his blasphemies. Hence also he was surnamed Caballinus, because he took pleasure in horse dung and urine. Thus from Theophanes, Baronius, vol. IX, year of Christ 775. Hear Theosterictus in Nicetas: 'So greatly,' he says, 'did he delight in filth and the foul odor of every most impure thing, that he would smear himself with the dung of brute animals, and would command those who were with him to do the same; those whom he loved, and for this reason received kindly, because he always delighted in foul-smelling things.' Let our Iconoclasts and Hagiomachists glory in these foul parents. A Carcass. — That is: 'That which loses life without the shedding of blood and in which the soul dies,' as St. Jerome says, such as what dies of itself, or is suffocated in water, or is strangled. It should also be noted, as St. Jerome says, that according to the number of days of the left side, three hundred ninety barley cakes are commanded to be made, and eaten on each day, and concerning the loaves of the forty days of the right side nothing is said at all, so that Holy Scripture may secretly intimate that the punishment of the sinful people is not the same, if indeed they have knowledge of God (that is, of the kingdom of Judah), and of those who have completely departed from the religion of the true God (the kingdom of Israel). AND TORN BY BEASTS. — Both are forbidden as unclean by the law in Leviticus XI, 11 and 24, etc., arguing from the greater to the lesser, as if to say: If I never eat unclean flesh, how shall I eat bread baked in human dung? Note: God hears him, because the merciful Father does not suffer His own to be afflicted longer in prayer, or to afflict themselves with penances, without hearing them. Thus He did for afflicted Moses, Elijah, Elisha and others. For human dung, therefore, He grants him ox dung, which is less abominable. Thus I have seen in Belgium men experienced in this, who, when horse dung was offered to a sick man in food or drink, would certainly cure him.
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16. THE STAFF OF BREAD. — The Hebrew מטה matte, that is, the substance, the sustenance of bread; Aquila, Symmachus and the Septuagint, the firmament of bread; the Chaldean, the support of bread. The sense is not, as if to say: I will take from bread the power of nourishing and sustaining, as some wish; but, as if to say: I will take away the bread itself that nourishes, I will take away crops and grain, I will bring sterility and scarcity of provisions. For by a Hebraism, the sustenance of bread is called bread sustaining. Thus allegorically, on account of heresy God takes away the bread of the Eucharist, which sustains the soul.
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17. TO HIS BROTHER,—at his brother's house, when he shall go to him to ask and beg bread, he shall waste away with hunger. LET THEM WASTE AWAY,—let them grow lean with hunger, and from this arising plague and pestilence let them rot, and into wasting and pestilential sores let them melt away, flow away and waste. In iniquities,—on account of iniquities. IT IS ASKED FIRST,—who are these 390 years of iniquity of Israel, and 40 of Judah, of which verses 5 and 6 speak? Some take iniquity properly for guilt, namely idolatry; others take it metonymically for punishment, so that years of iniquity are years of captivity. First, therefore, Polycarp reads 450 instead of 390, and he counts them from the sixth year of Hezekiah, when Hosea the last king of Israel was captured and led into Assyria, until the last year of Zedekiah, when that king of Judah himself was captured. But only 433 years elapsed between these. Theodoret also counts 150 from the fifth year of the transmigration of Jeconiah, when Ezekiel began to prophesy, until the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, when the temple was completed and the city of Jerusalem was surrounded by walls; and he counts 40 years for Judah from the same fifth year of Jeconiah until the second year of Cyrus, who released the Babylonian captivity of the Jews. But these accomplish nothing for Israel, that is for the ten tribes; but only for Judah. Add that he falsely reads 150 for 390, to say nothing of many other things. Second, the Jews, as St. Jerome testifies, join 40 with 390, so that they make 430, which they count from the second year of Vespasian, who overthrew Jerusalem, asserting that after 430 years it is to be restored and rebuilt for themselves and the Jews. Just as after 430 years they were freed from Egyptian servitude, Exodus XII, 40. But it is now evident that the Jews have been in exile from Jerusalem for more than fifteen hundred years, and scattered throughout the nations everywhere they miserably serve. Third, St. Jerome and from him Maldonatus count the iniquity, that is the captivity, of Israel as 390 years, from the first captivity of the ten tribes, when Tiglath-pileser, under Pekah king of Israel, transferred the Israelites into Assyria, or rather when Pul the Assyrian, IV Kings XV, 19, came into the land of Israel, to whom Menahem king of Israel gave tribute of a thousand talents of silver; and they end in the twenty-eighth year of Artaxerxes Mnemon, that is Mnemon (for he himself was of excellent memory), who succeeded Darius Nothos, and was the husband of Esther, who at the prayers of Esther freed all the Jews from death. But they count 40 years from the first year of Jeconiah, who surrendered himself to Nebuchadnezzar, until the first year of Cyrus. But both of these pertain more to the Jews captive in Babylon and Persia, and to be freed from death rather than from captivity, than to Israel, or the ten tribes. For the captivity of Judah in Babylon was loosened by Cyrus 428 years before Artaxerxes Mnemon. Again, in Mnemon the captivity of the ten tribes was not ended, but still endures: indeed Mnemon released no captivity, but only freed the Jews destined for death by Haman. Finally, the computation of years does not equal 390 years. For from Pul until the twenty-eighth year of Mnemon, only 383 years at most elapsed. Add that it is far more true that these years are not of captivity, but of iniquity properly so called: for the Prophet bears and atones for this. Fourth, R. Solomon and Kimchi count 390 years from the beginning of idolatry of the kingdom of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin, until the ninth year of Hosea, when the kingdom of Israel was overthrown, which are 241 years. To these they add 149 years, which they borrow from the time of the Judges, that is from the fourth year of Abimelech until the last year of Eli. But they count 40 years for Judah also by intercalating, namely 16 of Manasseh, in which he sinned; 2 of Amon, and 22 of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. But they intercalate these years for Israel and Judah gratuitously, and contrary to the order of chronology and the manner of Scripture. For even before Abimelech they worshipped the Baals, both the Jews and the Israelites, and before Manasseh, Ahaz also and Solomon worshipped idols. Fifth, others count 390 years from the twenty-third year of Eli to the last year of Hosea. But these also err in the computation. And even if we grant that they do not err, what does this matter? For after Eli, David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah and Josiah did not worship idols, nor did they sin; how therefore are these years years of iniquity of Israel? Sixth, others understand by Israel the two tribes and the cities of Judah, in which Jews and Israelites were mixed, especially after the flight and captivity of the ten tribes, in which idolatry flourished from the fourth year of Rehoboam until the last year of Zedekiah, for 390 years; by Judah they understand the city of Jerusalem, in which the slaughter of Christ and Christians flourished for almost 40 years, namely from the eighteenth year of Tiberius until the second year of Vespasian, who overthrew it. Both of these are true, but the latter is allegorical; for Ezekiel speaks literally of sins committed in his own time, and of the present siege made by Nebuchadnezzar, not by Vespasian. For the response: I say first, that all these things signify the siege of Jerusalem, in which the commonwealth of the Jews, that is both Israel, or the ten tribes, and Judah, was completely overthrown and laid waste. That this is so appears first, because Ezekiel and Jeremiah prophesy to the Jews alone, and foretell to them the destruction of Judaea and Jerusalem. Second, because the ten tribes had already long before, in the sixth year of Hezekiah, been cut off and led away into Assyria, and from thence never returned; therefore by Israel not these ten, but the two tribes, namely Judah and Benjamin, and whosoever of the ten tribes were mixed with Judah, are to be understood. Third, this appears from the beginning of the chapter, which is as it were the title of the whole prophecy, which is set forth in this chapter and the following. For it reads thus: 'And thou, son of man, take thee a brick, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city of Jerusalem, and set engines of war against it,' etc. All these things therefore are referred to Jerusalem and its siege and destruction. Whence immediately he adds, verse 3: 'It is a sign to the house of Israel,' that is to say, This description of the siege of Jerusalem upon the brick is a sign, and foretells that this siege of the Israelites, that is of the Jews, shall soon come to pass in reality; for a sign which is given to the Prophets is of a future thing, not of a past one. Fourth, because the kingdom of Israel, that is of the ten tribes, did not last for 390 years, but only 256; for so many years elapsed from the first year of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, who was the first king of the ten tribes, until the sixth year of Hezekiah, when this kingdom was overthrown by the Assyrians, as appears in IV Kings XVIII, 10. Therefore these 390 years of the iniquity of Israel also comprehend the iniquities of the kingdom of Judah. I say second, that the Prophet here sustains both the person of the besieged nation, so that when he lies bound for 390 days, eating bread baked under ashes, by which he signifies the citizens to be confined in the city, and to be tormented by famine; and the person of the besieging nation, so that when he stretches out his arm against the city, and sets a pan against it as a shield. I say third: By 390 days he foretells the siege of the city, but by 40 days the destruction of the city (whence in the last 40 days it is not expressed that he prepare bread for himself, because when the city was captured, there was not so great a famine); for that the city was besieged for 390 days appears to one who counts the days from the beginning of the siege to the end. For, as appears in IV Kings XXV, Nebuchadnezzar began to besiege the city in the ninth year of Zedekiah, on the tenth day of the tenth month, and took it in the eleventh year, on the ninth day of the fourth month. Now 390 days make twelve months and 23 days, during which Jerusalem was closely besieged. Ezekiel therefore omits some months of respite for Jerusalem, because namely when the Jews repented, and released their servants according to the law, the Chaldeans, leaving Jerusalem, went to meet the Egyptians coming to the aid of the Jews: afterwards when the Jews returned to their crimes and recalled their servants, they returned to the siege of Jerusalem, until they took it, as appears in Jeremiah chapter XXXIV. Thus Theodoret, Vatablus and others there. Moreover that Jerusalem was destroyed and laid waste during 40 days appears: because, as it is said in IV Kings chapter XXV, 8, and Jeremiah chapter LII, 6, on the ninth day of the fourth month, the city was taken; but on the seventh day of the fifth month the temple was burned; therefore there were 30 intermediate days, to which add 10 days, which the victorious Chaldean easily spent in the overthrow of so many houses and walls, you will have forty, which we seek. Finally, that the 390 days of Ezekiel's lying on his left side foretell as many days of the siege of Jerusalem, appears from verse 8, where it is said: 'Thou shalt not turn thee from thy side (the left, in which I first commanded thee to lie for 390 days, verse 4) to the other side (the right, in which I afterwards commanded thee to lie for 40 days, verse 6), until thou hast finished the days of thy siege' (for he was commanded to lie on this left side. Whence also, assigning him food, he adds): 'And thou take unto thee wheat, and barley, etc., and thou shalt make thee bread thereof according to the number of the days that thou sleepest upon thy side: three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.' From which it is clear that by the 390 days during which Ezekiel lay on his left side, he foretold and represented the 390 days of the siege of Jerusalem. I say fourth: To lie on the left side is troublesome and anxious, because then the heart, which inclines to the left side, is heated by the superimposed liver, and is suffocated. Whence this lying is a symbol of an anxious mind, and one often waking on account of impending danger: such was the condition of the Chaldeans, carefully besieging the city of Jerusalem. But to lie on the right side produces sweet and pleasant sleep, such as that of one freed from care. This lying therefore is a sign of victory, namely that the Chaldeans, having taken the city, slept deeply for joy, and the Jews, with things desperate, slept deeply for sorrow. I say fifth: Iniquity here signifies the punishment of iniquity, which he adds: 'Thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Israel,' that is to say, For so many days burdened with chains thou shalt endure the affliction owed to the iniquities of Israel, and by thy endurance thou shalt represent the affliction which they themselves shall bear for the same number of days of siege. I say sixth: When he says 'day,' understand days of punishment, 'for a year' of past guilt 'I have given thee.' These are therefore years of the past iniquities of Israel, not however of the punishment to be inflicted upon them; for thus he ought to have said: A year for a day I have given thee, thou who bearest the person of the people; but now on the contrary he says: 'A day for a year I have given thee,' that is to say, I have given thee so many days of hunger and affliction as the years in which the Israelites sinned with impunity. I say seventh: By Israel he understands both Jews and Israelites, that is, both the two and the ten tribes, because both were mixed together in Judaea, especially after the ten tribes for the most part were led away into Assyria. Both therefore are called here Israel rather than Juda, because in Israel began, flourished and persisted the iniquity which is here punished, namely idolatry, and from Israel it flowed to Juda. By the house of Juda, however, he understands the royal house, the family and kingdom, which was in the line of David and Juda, and by it he notes Manasses, whose iniquity and idolatry for 40 years was so great that, as Scripture says, IV Kings XXI, 16, he filled Jerusalem with the blood of the Prophets even to the brim, and so that God on account of it determined his line and city for certain destruction, and destroyed it irremissibly and inexorably, IV Kings XXIII, 26. Furthermore, that the crimes of Manasses lasted for 40 years (not however 22, as the Hebrews wish in the Seder-Olam) is gathered from the fact that, as Polycarp testifies, the Septuagint, IV Kings XXI, 18, according to some codices, say that Amon the son of Manasses reigned 12 years; namely because after his father he alone reigned 2 years, as the Hebrew and Latin have it, IV Kings XXI, 18; but with his father captive in Babylon, he reigned 10 years; his father however returning from captivity did not long survive, but appears to have lived and reigned about 5 years. Now take away these last 5 years of his reign, and 10 of his captivity from the 55 years in which Manasses is said universally to have reigned, and thou wilt have 40 years of his sins and wicked reign. Whence Vatablus: 'For forty,' he says, 'years Israel sinned most gravely in the time of Manasses, who remained in office only fifteen years, and sinned for forty.' The years therefore of 390 of the iniquity of Israel begin from the 1st year of Roboam king of Juda, and Jeroboam king of Israel, who as soon as he was made king made idols, namely golden calves, which in that same year the Israelites worshipped, and to which and to the Baals after three years the Jews also under Roboam turned. But these 390 years are ended in the last year of Sedeciah, in which the city was overthrown. For so many, namely 390 years between the 1st year of Jeroboam and the last of Sedeciah flowed between, as chronologists everywhere agree. To these therefore 390 years of iniquity, in punishment succeeded 390 days of the siege of the city, which the Prophet represents by his lying on his left side for 390 days. But to the years of 40 of the sins of the house of Juda, that is of Manasses, succeed 40 days of the destruction and desolation of the city: which the Prophet represents by lying on his right side for 40 days. Nor is it strange that the 40 years of Manasses are included in the 390 years, and consequently counted twice; because these 40 years were more notable in malice, and therefore as it were double. For these were the sole cause of the irrevocable sentence of God concerning the destruction of Jerusalem. The sense therefore is, that is to say, By the earlier sins committed by the Jews over 390 years, the siege of Jerusalem is owed; but by the later sins of Manasses, perpetrated over 40 years, a certain decree of the destruction and complete desolation of the city is determined. Thus Jerome Prado, and Vatablus. Some not improbably count these 40 years of the sins of the house of Judah from the 13th year of Josiah up to the 11th and final year of Zedekiah: for these were properly Judah; for Israel, that is the ten tribes, had already been carried away. For then the Jews were more wicked than usual; so much so that they mocked Jeremiah and other heralds denouncing God's wrath and tormented them. To this opinion our Pineda assents, who in book VII of Concerning the Affairs of Solomon, chapter IX, holds that these 390 years begin from the 27th year of Solomon, when he himself fell into idolatry; for from that time until the final year of Joakim (in which he holds these years to end) he counts 390 years. For although Zedekiah reigned after Joakim, under whom Jerusalem was destroyed; nevertheless the beginning of this destruction and ruin was that earlier captivity under Joakim and Jeconiah. And for this reason Scripture, narrating the destruction of Jerusalem, makes mention of Solomon, because he was the origin of sin, namely idolatry, and consequently of the destruction. This mention is made in IV Kings XXIV, where after the defeat of Joakim and the captivity of his son Jeconiah, Scripture adds in verse 13, concerning Nebuchadnezzar: 'He cut in pieces all the vessels of gold, which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, according to the word of the Lord.' This opinion affords a fitting and plausible conjecture, especially because Solomon was the first author of the idolatry of Israel, which was thereafter continued for 390 years, until its destruction. But because Solomon indeed worshipped idols, yet did not sanction their worship by public edict, much less did he abolish the worship of the true God in Israel; and because it is uncertain in what precise year Solomon apostatized and worshipped idols, hence we shall more rightly and certainly begin these years from the schism, which Jeroboam made both against Judah and against God, who first raised the standard of idolatry, establishing golden calves in Dan and Bethel, and forbidding anyone to go to the temple of Jerusalem to worship God. Whence this schism is most celebrated in Scripture, and against it, namely against the golden calves, the Prophets thunder forth everywhere. IT IS ASKED SECONDLY, — whether Ezekiel truly lay down, or whether he only seemed to himself to lie down through a vision for 390 days? St. Jerome, Vatablus and others answer that it was only an imaginary vision, because nature does not permit a man to sleep on one side for so many days, so that he never turns to the other side. But I answer that he truly lay down on his left side for 390 days and on his right side for 40 days. It is evident, because God truly commands this here: for the words of this precept signify it simply. Therefore the Prophet, as one obedient to God in all things, accomplished and fulfilled the same in deed. Secondly, because in verse 12 it is said that he lay down in this way in fact 'in the sight of them.' Therefore it was not done through a vision: for Ezekiel alone would have seen this, not the eyes of others. Thus Chrysostom, book III On Divine Providence, after the middle; Basil, in Isaiah chapter VIII; Theodoret, in Hosea chapter I; Ribera, in Hosea chapter I, number 47, Prado and others. To the argument I reply that the Prophet did not sleep always, but lay in this position, now awake, now sleeping. For this is what the Hebrew word שכב (scacab) signifies. Moreover, that this could happen, if not by nature, certainly by special aid of God, no one doubts. I myself saw at Louvain a noble man, paralyzed, who for already the sixteenth year continuously lay supine with wonderful patience. Our Prado testifies that he saw a man out of his mind, who for fifteen whole years lay on one side. Thus Simeon Stylites stood on the same foot for eighty continuous years, nature being aided by God's grace. Indeed, Epimenides, whom St. Paul in Titus I calls the Cretans' own prophet, is reported by Laertius, lib. I, in his Life and by others, to have slept in a cave for fifty-seven years itself. If this seems to Pliny, lib. VII, cap. LII, deservedly fabulous, certainly it is not fabulous what Gregory of Tours, Nicephorus and others narrate concerning seven holy brothers, who slept at Ephesus for nearly two hundred years, and when persecution ceased they awoke, thinking they had slept only one night, and whom the Emperor Theodosius came to Ephesus to see. Paul the Deacon relates something similar concerning seven sleepers in Germany, lib. I De Gestis Longobard. cap. III. For rightly Aristotle, lib. IV Physic. text. XCVII, teaches that those who sleep do not perceive the time in which they sleep, but join the moment of time in which they begin to sleep with that in which they awake; because they do not feel the intermediate time, since they perceive no change: "Just as neither those, he says, who are said fabulously to sleep in Sardis among the heroes when they have been awakened," concerning which place Simplicius, Comment. 104, writes that when the Sardians were captured by the Greeks, nine heroes, sons of Hercules, were found dead in a cave, yet so well preserved with aromatics that they seemed to be sleeping. Philoponus says, and from him Toletus, on the passage of Aristotle already cited, that those who were in poor health were brought to these men, who were immediately seized by a great sleep, so that upon awakening they did not perceive the long time of their sleep. You will say: This vision occurred in the fifth year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the thirteenth day, as is gathered from cap. I, 1 and 2, and from cap. III, 15; yet in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day, as is found in cap. VIII, Ezekiel sat (not lay, as is said here) at home with the elders of Judah: now from the thirteenth day of the fourth month of the fifth year, to the fifth day of the sixth month of the sixth year, there are 406 days (for these are the months of the Hebrews, lunar, of which twelve make a lunar year, which is eleven days less than a solar year); but the days 390, joined with the other 40, make 430 days; therefore 24 days are lacking here. For subtract 406 from 430, and 24 remain. Prado replies that that year was an intercalary year, and had 13 months, that is, 30 days more than others. For every third year the Hebrews intercalated a month, so that they might make their lunar years equal to solar years. Therefore the 24 days which are lacking here are to be supplied from the 30 days of the thirteenth month. Morally, learn here how God exercises His illustrious friends and prophets, how harsh commands He gives them, how He mortifies them, so that they may be an example and a portent to the whole world. The Gentiles feigned something similar, namely that Endymion, a beautiful boy, beloved by the moon, sleeps perpetually, because the moon asked this of Jupiter and obtained it. Whence the Proverb: "You sleep the sleep of Endymion," which Aristotle used, lib. X Moralium, concluding that neither leisure befits the gods, nor again any other action seems worthy of them except contemplation. "Moreover, since it is established, he says, that gods live, it is fitting that they also do something. For it is not right that they sleep the sleep of Endymion, as they say." Hence also Cicero, lib. I De Finibus, teaches that leisure is most troublesome to the wise man and to any man, because it is most implanted in us by nature that we do something. "Therefore, he says, lest, if we should think we would use the most pleasant dreams, we should wish the sleep of Endymion to be given us, and if that should happen, we should think it like death." The same, Tuscul. I: "Although, he says, those who make it lighter want it to be most like sleep. As if anyone would wish to live ninety years in such a way that, when he had completed sixty, he would sleep the rest: not even pigs would wish that, much less he himself. Endymion, however, if we wish to hear the fables, I know not when fell asleep on Latmus, which is a mountain of Caria, not yet, I think, awakened." If long sleep is like death, and thus the burial of a living man; what will long wakefulness be? what will perpetual lying on one and the same side be, which besides fatigue, burdens and oppresses the weak side with the whole weight of the body, so that it often wears away and chafes the skin and flesh, leaving only bones to the man? Again, learn here how God teaches and commands His own to become foolish to the world, that they may be wise unto God: that He may draw away and lead God's elect from the worship of the world to the worship of God. For this reason He commanded them paradoxical things, and things abhorrent from the common use of life, that He might teach them both simple obedience and neglect of themselves and contempt of the world. Thus Ezekiel here in cap. IV was commanded to eat bread baked in dung, and in cap. V, by God's command, in the manner of one raging mad, he shaved his beard and hair with a sword, scattered them in the air, and burned them with flame. Assuredly, he who obeys God becomes wise precisely when by His command he becomes foolish. Thus Isaiah, in cap. XX, a man so great and sprung from royal stock, walked naked openly in the royal city. Thus Jeremiah, in cap. XXVII, like a fugitive slave and a criminal laden with chains, walked about the streets of the city. Thus Hosea, most chaste, at God's command took a harlot as his wife. Thus the Prophet says to his companion, III Kings cap. XX, 35: 'Smite me,' and when he refused, he heard: 'A lion shall smite thee;' and soon he was killed by a lion, and being wounded by another, he met Ahab the king and reproved him, because he had not killed Benhadad when captured. Thus the ancient ascetics and monks exercised their disciples, commanding them certain paradoxical things, and things that appeared foolish. Thus St. Antony wonderfully exercised Paul the Simple with fastings and labors. Thus Abbot John commanded his disciple for three years to water a dry stick daily, which thereupon at length began to grow green by miracle. Thus St. Alexander, a wonderful despiser of himself, made himself a charcoal-maker from a philosopher, that he might hide his beauty; from a charcoal-maker he was made a Bishop, from a Bishop a martyr. Witness is Nyssenus in the Life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus. Thus St. Amma, according to Palladius in the Lausiac History, cap. XLII, feigning herself foolish in the monastery, and being mocked and vexed by all as a fool, was at length declared by St. Pitirius to be by God's judgment the holiest and wisest of all. Thus Simeon Salus, that is the fool, is wonderfully celebrated by Evagrius and Leontius in his Life. This holy foolishness St. Francis, Blessed Juniper, Blessed Jacopone, and similar others taught everywhere by word and example. Yea, and the Apostles, says St. Paul, while he everywhere preaches the cross of Christ: 'To the Jews a stumbling-block, to the Gentiles foolishness.' Hear him, I Cor. IV, 9: 'I think that God hath set forth us Apostles last, as it were appointed to death: because we are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. We are foolish for Christ, etc., we are cursed, and we bless; we suffer persecution, and we endure; we are blasphemed, and we entreat: we are made as the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all even until now.' See more things in our Rader, lib. De Simplici obedientia et contemptu sui.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
4:1
… 13; 2, 1 etc.; Obad. 1; Jon. 1, 1; 3, 1; Mic. 1, 1; 3, 5; 6, 1; Nah. 1, 12; Zeph. 1, 1; Hag. 1, 1; 2, 1, 11, 21; Zech. 1, 1; 7, 1 ff.) what he has written; reports visions, revelations or supernatural dreams (Num. 12, 6 ff.; Is. 6, 20; Jer. 1, 11-16; Ezek. 4, 1-5, 4; Jer. 4, 20 ff.; Is. 5, 9; 22, 14; Ezek. 9, 1; Jer. 20, 7-12; 23, 28; Mic. 3, 8; Is. 6, 6-9; Jer. 1, 17-19; Ezek. 3, 8-9). The hagiographer or biblical writer is therefore the intermediary …
4:5
to Damascus in 176 B.C., in the full Hellenistic period, are the most commonly used, at least as a generic indication: some scholars, however, consider them purely literary data (in relation especially to Ez. 4, 5), devoid of documentary value. …
… Ezekiel foretells in detail the siege and destruction of Jerusalem (Ezek. 4:5-21); and when all seems lost, he predicts the return of the exiles, the constitution of the new Israel (ibid. 37, 40-48) and the victory that it will win over the assault of the gentiles …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.