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Ezekiel 4

Ezekiel 4 Summary, Context, and Full Chapter

Ezekiel 4 uses striking signs to warn Judah about Jerusalem's coming siege. The prophet acts out the city's distress, the people's guilt, and the coming shortage of food and water. The chapter shows both God's judgment and the seriousness of the nation's sin.

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What happens in Ezekiel 4?

God tells Ezekiel to portray Jerusalem under siege using a model city, siege works, and an iron barrier. Ezekiel must lie on his side for many days to symbolize the guilt of Israel and Judah, then speak against the city with his arm exposed. The second sign focuses on scarcity: Ezekiel must eat carefully measured food and drink limited water, showing the rationing and defilement the exiles will face. When Ezekiel objects to the commanded defilement, God allows a change in the cooking fuel. The chapter ends with a warning that Jerusalem's food and water will be cut off.

This chapter comes after Ezekiel's call and commissioning in the opening chapters. By now, Ezekiel has been set apart as a watchman and told to speak only what God gives him. Chapter 4 begins a series of enacted signs that make the message visible, preparing the way for stronger warnings about Jerusalem's fall in the chapters that follow.

Themes to notice

  • JudgmentThe acted signs announce that Jerusalem's sin will bring severe consequences.
  • ExileThe rationed food and defiled bread point to life among the nations after removal from the land.
  • Symbolic actionEzekiel's public actions communicate God's message in a vivid, memorable way.

Questions for Ezekiel 4

  • Why does God ask Ezekiel to act out the siege instead of only speaking about it?
  • What do the measured food and water reveal about the coming conditions in Jerusalem and exile?
  • How do Ezekiel's signs help us understand the seriousness of sin in this chapter?

Read the full text of Ezekiel 4 below, then open it in the reader to highlight, take notes, or ask follow-up Bible questions. No account is required to read.

Ezekiel 4

A Sign of Jerusalem’s Siege

1“Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you, and draw on it the city of Jerusalem.2Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp to it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it on all sides.3Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

4Then lie down on your left side and place the iniquity of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their iniquity for the number of days you lie on your side.5For I have assigned to you 390 days, according to the number of years of their iniquity. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

6When you have completed these days, lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned to you 40 days, a day for each year.7You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it.8Now behold, I will tie you up with ropes so you cannot turn from side to side until you have finished the days of your siege.

The Defiled Bread

9But take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. This is what you are to eat during the 390 days you lie on your side.10You are to weigh out twenty shekels of food to eat each day, and you are to eat it at set times.11You are also to measure out a sixth of a hin of water to drink, and you are to drink it at set times.12And you shall eat the food as you would a barley cake, after you bake it over dried human excrement in the sight of the people.”13Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.”

14“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”

15“Look,” He replied, “I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you may bake your bread over that.”

16Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.17So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.

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