\\INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 4\\

This chapter contains a prophecy of the siege of Jerusalem, and of the
famine that attended it. The siege is described by a portrait of the
city of Jerusalem on a tile, laid before the prophet, \\#Eze 4:1\\; by
each of the actions, representing a siege of it, as building a fort,
casting a mount, and setting a camp and battering rams against it, and
an iron pan for a wall, between the prophet, the besieger, and the
city, \\#Eze 4:2,3\\; by his gesture, lying first on his left side for the
space of three hundred ninety days, and then on his right side for the
space of forty days, pointing at the time when the city should be
taken, \\#Eze 4:4-6\\; and by setting his face to the siege, and uncovering
his arm, and prophesying, \\#Eze 4:7\\; and by bands being laid on him, so
that he could not turn from one side to the other, till the siege was
ended, \\#Eze 4:8\\; the famine is signified by bread the prophet was to
make of various sorts of grain and seeds, baked with men's dung, and
eaten by weight, with water drank by measure, which is applied unto the
people; it is suggested that this would be fulfilled by the children of
Israel's eating defiled bread among the Gentiles, \\#Eze 4:9-13\\; but upon
the prophet's concern about eating anything forbidden by the law,
which he had never done, cow's dung is allowed instead of men's, to
prepare the bread with, \\#Eze 4:14,15\\; and the chapter is concluded
with a resolution to bring a severe famine on them, to their great
astonishment, and with which they should be consumed for their
iniquity, \\#Eze 4:16,17\\.