Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Ezekiel 4:4

"From the end [of the bed] in one context [Ezekiel 4:4], the entire people [are included] from the end. 'For the city has been captured from the end' [Ezekiel 4:2]. Regarding Nebuchadnezzar, let me tell you that these are appropriate for one destruction like these. Furthermore, when they departed from here, their city was also captured from the end."

'אם יהיה נביאכם ה, “if there be a prophet among you;” these words referred to their having said that they too were prophets, seeing that G–d had spoken to them both. G–d now proceeds to teach them that there are different levels of prophecy, of man’s intimacy with the Lord. G–d’s relationship with Moses, He explains, is of a different dimension altogether than that between Him and any other prophets. Other prophets receive a vision during a dream, and when waking up required the dream to be explained to them. They do not come face to face even with the vision, only with its reflection, mirror-like. In other words, they are told a parable and have to work out how the facts match what has been shown them as a parable. We find examples of this in Ezekiel 4,4, the prophet being instructed to lie on his left side. Or compare Daniel 8,13: “I heard a holy one speaking and the holy one was saying something to an anonymous one.” There are numerous examples in the Bible of such enigmatic communications emanating from the heaven but not clear in meaning. G–d tells Miriam and Aaron that Moses never receives a communication from Him which is not clear and its meaning beyond doubt.

all the days of its desolation it rested until the completion of seventy years [corresponding to] the Sabbatical and Jubilee years that Israel had neglected to observe in the land, and corresponding to them they were exiled for seventy years. The land of Israel rested for those seventy years. The Israelites provoked [God] in their land for 430 years. These included 390 years from the time they entered the land until the ten tribes were exiled therefrom, and they are explained (as follows): 243 years from the time Jeroboam ascended the throne until Hoshea the son of Elah was exiled, and 111 years during the administration of the judges, when they provoked [Him], and the rest are obscure. That is what is stated in Ezekiel (4:4ff.): “And you shall lie on your left side, and you shall place the iniquity of the house of Israel, etc., 390 days, etc. And when you complete these, you shall lie on your right a second time, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, 40 days, a day for a year, a day for a year.” This teaches that the house of Judah sinned from the time that the ten tribes were exiled until Jerusalem was destroyed, for 40 years. How so? Twenty-two years of Manasseh, as it is written (II Kings 21:3): “according to all that Ahab did,” and Ahab reigned 22 years (and he [Manasseh] repented for thirty-three years, totaling fifty-five years.) Add 2 years of Amon, and 11 of Jehoiakim, totaling thirty-five years, and this prophecy was transmitted to Ezekiel in the 5th year of Zedekiah, totaling 40 years. The sum total of them all, of both Israel and Judah, is 430 years. Note that there are 64 Sabbatical and Jubilee years in 400 years. There are 5 Sabbatical years in 35 years, totaling 69, and the last Jubilee year was counted for them as iniquity, for because of their iniquity they were exiled therefrom. Hence the 70 hallowed years of Shemittah that Israel did not observe. They were consequently exiled for seventy years to fulfill what was said, (Lev. 26:34): “Then the land will be appeased regarding its Sabbaths.” So it is explained in Seder Olam (see ch. 26). Chronicles is concluded with this since he says: “until the completion of seventy years.” He had to state these verses and those of Ezra (in the beginning) to let us know that when those seventy years were over, “the wheel rotated” and they returned to their land. He therefore said here: “in the first year of Cyrus, the king of Persia” until “Who among you is of all His people, etc., and he may ascend.” The reason that the “vav” [and] of “And in the first year” is added, is because the Book of Daniel intervenes, for the book of Ezra continues in sequence after the Book of Daniel, and this “vav” connects them together.”

את אשר לא שבתה BECAUSE IT DID NOT REST [IN YOUR SABBATHS] — The seventy years of the Babylonian exile exactly corresponded to the seventy Sabbatical and Jubilee years that were due in those years when Israel was provoking the anger of the Omnipresent whilststill in their land, i. e. in 430 years. Three hundred and ninety were their years of sin from the time they entered the Land until the Ten Tribes went into exile. The people of the Kingdom of Judah provoked Him still another forty years, — from the exile of the Ten Tribes until the destruction of Jerusalem (in the days of king Jehoiachin; cf. 2 Kings 24:10 ff.). It is this that is mentioned in the case of Ezekiel (4:4—6): “Moreover lie thou upon thy left, [and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be unto thee a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days…]. And again, when thou hast accomplished these, thou shalt lie on thy right side, and shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days [each day for a year have I appointed it unto thee]”. This prophecy was spoken to Ezekiel in the fifth year of king Jeoiachin’s captivity (cf. Ezekiel 1:2). They spent another six years in the Land until Zedekiah (the last king, who reigned eleven years) went into exile; thus you have altogether forty-six years. — And if you say “But this period must have covered more than forty-six years because the years of the reign of Manasseh (the son of Hezekiah during whose reign the Ten Tribes became exiled), were alone 55 years, and there followed other kings also until the destruction of the Temple!” Then I reply that Manasseh lived in a state of repentence 33 years of these and that the years of his wickedness with which alone we are concerned were only twenty-two, as it is said, (2 Kings 21:3) “For he (Manasseh)… made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel”, and Ahab reigned 22 years, just as they (the Rabbis) stated (i. e. they stated that this comparison of Manasseh with Ahab shows that the latter was wicked for 22 years only) in the chapter Chelek (Sanhedrin 103a). Then we have the years of his successor, Amon, two; eleven of Jehoiakin, and a similar number of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah — altogether 46 years. Now, go and calculate for four hundred and thirty-six years the number of Sabbatical and Jubilee periods contained in them and you will find that they are sixteen for every hundred years, viz., fourteen Sabbatical periods and two Jubilee-periods; so for four hundred years there are sixty-four. For the remaining thirty-six there are five Sabbatical periods, making seventy less one. There is yet one year over (the thirty-sixth, since five Sabbatical periods give only thirty-five years) which entered into (began) the Sabbatical period and which completes seventy such periods, each terminating in a Sabbatical year. And because of them (i. e. because of the neglect of these seventy years) exactly seventy years of exile were decreed against them. Thus, too, it is said in Chronicles, (II Chronicles 36:21) “[and them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon…] until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths [for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbaths] to fulfill three score and ten years” (Seder Olam).

את אשר לא שבתה BECAUSE IT DID NOT REST [IN YOUR SABBATHS] — The seventy years of the Babylonian exile exactly corresponded to the seventy Sabbatical and Jubilee years that were due in those years when Israel was provoking the anger of the Omnipresent whilststill in their land, i. e. in 430 years. Three hundred and ninety were their years of sin from the time they entered the Land until the Ten Tribes went into exile. The people of the Kingdom of Judah provoked Him still another forty years, — from the exile of the Ten Tribes until the destruction of Jerusalem (in the days of king Jehoiachin; cf. 2 Kings 24:10 ff.). It is this that is mentioned in the case of Ezekiel (4:4—6): “Moreover lie thou upon thy left, [and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be unto thee a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days…]. And again, when thou hast accomplished these, thou shalt lie on thy right side, and shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days [each day for a year have I appointed it unto thee]”. This prophecy was spoken to Ezekiel in the fifth year of king Jeoiachin’s captivity (cf. Ezekiel 1:2). They spent another six years in the Land until Zedekiah (the last king, who reigned eleven years) went into exile; thus you have altogether forty-six years. — And if you say “But this period must have covered more than forty-six years because the years of the reign of Manasseh (the son of Hezekiah during whose reign the Ten Tribes became exiled), were alone 55 years, and there followed other kings also until the destruction of the Temple!” Then I reply that Manasseh lived in a state of repentence 33 years of these and that the years of his wickedness with which alone we are concerned were only twenty-two, as it is said, (2 Kings 21:3) “For he (Manasseh)… made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel”, and Ahab reigned 22 years, just as they (the Rabbis) stated (i. e. they stated that this comparison of Manasseh with Ahab shows that the latter was wicked for 22 years only) in the chapter Chelek (Sanhedrin 103a). Then we have the years of his successor, Amon, two; eleven of Jehoiakin, and a similar number of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah — altogether 46 years. Now, go and calculate for four hundred and thirty-six years the number of Sabbatical and Jubilee periods contained in them and you will find that they are sixteen for every hundred years, viz., fourteen Sabbatical periods and two Jubilee-periods; so for four hundred years there are sixty-four. For the remaining thirty-six there are five Sabbatical periods, making seventy less one. There is yet one year over (the thirty-sixth, since five Sabbatical periods give only thirty-five years) which entered into (began) the Sabbatical period and which completes seventy such periods, each terminating in a Sabbatical year. And because of them (i. e. because of the neglect of these seventy years) exactly seventy years of exile were decreed against them. Thus, too, it is said in Chronicles, (II Chronicles 36:21) “[and them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon…] until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths [for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbaths] to fulfill three score and ten years” (Seder Olam).