Commento su Ezechiele 4:20

a brick Heb. לְבֵנָה, tivle in Old French [tuile in modern French]. Some of them are large.

take a brick for yourself – This instruction teaches that the reality and existence of Jerusalem comes solely at the hands of the Lord, and through His will, because in and of herself she is just a raw, amorphous brick without any form. By placing it before you, you hint at the fact that the Lord has placed her before Him and keeps His eyes and providence upon her. Through this ‘and engrave upon it a city’ she will be rebuilt a settled city upon her mound. Then Jerusalem will be “the city of a great king.” (Psalms 48:3)

a stone-throwing catapult Heb. דיק, mangonel in Old French, [mangonneau in modern French], with which they cast stones upon the city.

a siege mound Heb. סֹלְלָה, he would pour earth and press upon it (סֹלְלָה) and beat it down with sticks, and make a high mound on which to stand and look into the city and shoot arrows.

סֹלְלָה is bastion in Old French, rampart.

and place villages around it Heb. כָּרִים. Jonathan rendered: אֶפְרוֹרְוָן, which are villages that his armies make, and [the armies] dwell in tents on [all] sides of the city, so that no man could come or go. Another explanation is that כָּרִים are officers appointed over the army; this one guards on this side, and that one on that side.

an iron wall A semblance of the city wall that serves as a partition between the army and the city.

that is a sign that so will Jerusalem come under siege.

on your left side to bear the pain and torture [over] the number of days corresponding to the number of years that My spirit oppressed Me, so to speak, because they provoked Me, and you will atone for their iniquity since the retribution that I say I will bring upon them is painful to you.

I have given you the years of their iniquity, etc. I have made it easier for you to tolerate the pain that I Myself suffered for the number of the years that they sinned before Me: for you I converted it to that number in days. [Another explanation: שְּׁנֵי is like שְׁנַיִם, two, and so did Jonathan render: Now I have given you twice as much as their iniquity. This does not appear in other editions].

three hundred and ninety days We learned in Seder Olam (ch. 26): This teaches us that Israel sinned for three hundred and ninety years from the time they entered the Land until the ten tribes were exiled therefrom. You find [the events of] two hundred and forty-three of them delineated: From the time Jeroboam assumed the throne until Hoshea son of Elah was exiled and in “the days that the judges judged” are one hundred and eleven years. The rest, however, are not delineated. (These are [the calculations of] the three hundred and ninety years—that I found in a responsum from Rabbi Joseph, the head of the yeshivah—that the ten tribes sinned from the days of Joshua until Sannecherib exiled them from Samaria. Calculate: in the days of the Judges there were 8 years under the rule of Cushan, 18 under the rule of Eglon, 20 under the rule of Sisera, 7 under the rule of Midian, 18 under the rule of the children of Ammon, and 40 under the rule of the Philistines. This totals 111. From Micah until the Ark was captured were 40 years, totaling 151. Calculate for Jeroboam son of Nebat 22, Nadab his son 2, Baasa 24, Elah his son 2, Omri 12, Ahab 22, Ahaziah his son 2, Jehoram his brother 12, Jehu 28, Jehoahaz 17, Jehoash his son 16, Jeroboam his son 41the total is 350 (sic.). And [with] Menachem son of Gadi 10, Pekahiah his son 2, Pekah son of Remaliah 20, and Hoshea son of Elah 9 years, the total is 391, but Hoshea’s last year is not counted because in Hoshea’s ninth year, Samaria was captured and Hoshea was counted as having reigned 8 years, leaving a total of 390. The forty years that the kings of Judah sinned after the exile of Sannecherib until [the prophecy of] this chapter was said to Ezekiel are delineated below, and I did not find it necessary to explain them. This is not found in other editions.)

the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days This teaches us that the house of Judah sinned, from the time that the ten tribes were exiled until Jerusalem was destroyed, forty years: 22 of Manasseh, about whom it is written (II Kings 21:3): “as Ahab...had made,” and Ahab had reigned 22 years; two of Ammon and 11 of Jehoiakim, and this prophecy was transmitted to Ezekiel in the fifth year of Zedekiah. This totals 40 years. The grand total is four hundred and thirty [years]. After this prophecy, they remained yet six years, equaling 8 jubilees and 36 years. In 8 jubilees [there] are 8 cycles of Sabbatical years, equaling 56 Sabbatical years, totaling 64 [hallowed years]. In 36 years, there are 5 Sabbatical years, totaling 69 land-release years, and the final jubilee year is accounted to them as an iniquity because they were exiled from it [the land] because of their iniquity, totaling 70 hallowed years of land release, which Israel did not observe. Therefore, they were exiled 70 years to fulfill (Lev. 26:34): “Then the land will appease its Sabbaths.” That is what is written at the end of Chronicles (II 36:21): “To fulfill the word of the Lord [that was] in the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land has appeased its Sabbaths, for as long as it lay desolate, it rested, to complete seventy years.”

“Your left side” symbolizes Samaria; “your right side” symbolizes Judah, because Judah is in the south of the land of Israel, as it is said (16:46): “And your big sister Samaria...who lives at your left.” Also in the Book of Joshua (15:1), he describes the border of the tribe of Judah as occupying the entire southern border.

And to the siege of Jerusalem which is engraved on the brick, you shall direct your face; when you lie on your left side, the brick should be opposite you, and so too when you lie on your right.

and your arm shall be bared toward them (Other editions read: opposite it), like a fighting man. This symbolizes Nebuchadnezzar, who will fight against it.

bared Heb. חֲשּׂוּפָה, like גְלוּיָה.

I have placed ropes upon you The decree of My commandments shall be stringent upon you as you were bound with ropes so that you should not turn from side to side.

until you complete the days of your siege The number of these days that I decreed upon you.

wheat and barley, etc., and millet and spelt paniz et epeltre in Old French, millet and spelt. A sign of the famine that will be upon them in the days of the siege, and they will eat a bread of mixed [grains] while nauseated.

with a weight [This is] symbolic of the besieged people, who are fearful of the famine and [so] eat with a measure and drink with a measure.

from time to time From day to day you shall drink with this measure, viz. a sixth of a hin.

And as barley cakes you shall eat it Rolled out in a repulsive manner like the rolling of barley, not nicely like the rolling out of a wheat cake.

and they shall bake it with human excrement They shall bake it with their coals that dry it out and burn it.

unclean An expression of repugnance.

O An expression of sighing.

my soul has not been defiled I did not entertain erotic thoughts by day, bringing myself to nocturnal pollution.

neither have I eaten from an animal that died by itself and was torn The flesh of a dying animal, which resembles an animal that died by itself and an animal that was torn by beasts.

loathsome meat An animal [of debatable status] upon which a rabbi ruled [permissively]. This cannot mean an animal that actually died by itself or that was torn [by beasts, injuring it so that it could not live for a year], because if so, what was the greatness of Ezekiel?

dung Heb. צְפִיעֵי [synonymous with] גֶלְלֵי, excrement.

the staff of bread the support of bread, pozon de pan in Old French.

and with worry They will worry that their bread supply will be depleted.

דְּאָגָה means aynse in Old French, anxiety, and in our language [dialect] doubt, terror, fright.

Because they will lack Their worry and their bewilderment will be because they will lack bread and water in the days of the siege, and they will worry that the supply will be entirely depleted.