Ezekiel 4:2
in Ezekiel 4Then 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.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it round about.
KJV
And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.
⋯
This verse in Ezekiel 4
Commentary
8 notes on this verseBattering rams - כרים carim. This is the earliest account we have of this military engine. It was a long beam with a head of brass, like the head and horns of a ram, whence its name. It was hung by chains or ropes, between two beams, or three legs, so that it could admit of being drawn backward and forward some yards.
This site's exposition
take thee a tile
on Ezekiel 4:1-3
The prophet is told to take a tile and scratch a city on it, Jerusalem drawn as a child draws a fort, with a mound and a camp and battering rams set against it in miniature. The scene is called a sign to the house of Israel before a word of interpretation is given, the pattern of Ezekiel's whole ministry, act first and speech after. Henry reads the model siege as a rehearsal meant to convince exiles who still hoped Jerusalem would stand that the city they trusted was already, in effect, under the rod. The iron pan set as a wall of iron pictures a barrier no prayer will move, the Lord himself besieging the city he once dwelt in.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Chapter 4, Verses 1-2.) And you, son of man, take a brick for yourself and set it before you, and portray on it the city of Jerusalem. Build siege works against it, build a siege mound against it, raise a ramp against it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams against it all around. As we have said before, go inside and enclose it in the midst of your house; and behold, ropes will be put on you, and you will be bound, and you shall not go out.
The Medieval Church2 voices
Some things, however, ought to be reproved strongly, so that when a fault is not recognized by the one who has committed it, he may be made aware of its gravity by verbal reproof, or when anyone glosses over an evil that he has perpetrated, he may be led by the harshness of his censure to entertain grave fears of its effects on him. For indeed it is the duty of a ruler to show by the voice of preaching the glory of our heavenly country, to disclose what great temptations of the old enemy are lurking in this life's journey, and to correct with zealous harshness such evils among those who are under his sway that should not be gently borne with, lest, in being too little incensed against such faults, he himself be held guilty of all faults.
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistHomilies on Ezekiel, Book 1, Homily 12 · Written before 604.
proposed
"And you shall set the siege against it, and you shall build fortifications, and you shall heap up a mound, and you shall set camps against it, and place battering rams around it." Therefore the teacher must vigilantly make known to the progressing soul what temptations follow it, so that it may be able to prepare itself cautiously against the snares of the malignant spirit.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
And lay siege against it,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
A wall of circumvallation [Septuagint and ROSENMULLER]. A kind of battering-ram [MAURER]. The first view is best. a mount--wherewith the Chaldeans could be defended from missiles. battering-rams--literally, "through-borers." In Eze 21:22 the same Hebrew is translated "captains."
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Lay siege against it - The prophet is represented as doing that which he portrays. The leading features of a siege are depicted. See the Jer 6:6 note. The camp - Encampments. The word denotes various hosts in various positions around the city. Fort - It was customary in sieges to construct towers of vast height, sometimes of 20 stories, which were wheeled up to the walls to enable the besiegers to reach the battlements with their arrows; in the lower part of such a tower there was commonly a battering-ram. These towers are frequently represented in the Assyrian monuments. Battering rams - Better than the translation in the margin. Assyrian monuments prove that these engines of war are of great antiquity. These engines seem to have been beams suspended by chains generally in moveable towers, and to have been applied against the walls in the way familiar to us from Greek and Roman history. The name “ram” was probably given to describe their mode of operation; no Assyrian monument yet discovered exhibits the ram’s head of later times.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
a brick Heb. לְבֵנָה, tivle in Old French [tuile in modern French]. Some of them are large.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
16 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְנָתַתָּ֨ה | venatatah | and you will make | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| עָלֶ֜יהָ | ʾaleiha | on it | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| מָצ֗וֹר | matzor | a siege | H4692 → | 25 times |
| וּבָנִ֤יתָ | uvanita | and you will build | H1129 → | 376 times |
| עָלֶ֙יהָ֙ | ʾaleiha | on it | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| דָּיֵ֔ק | dayek | a siege-wall | H1785 → | 6 times |
| וְשָׁפַכְתָּ֥ | veshafakhta | and you will pour out | H8210 → | 114 times |
| עָלֶ֖יהָ | ʾaleiha | on it | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| סֹֽלְלָ֑ה | solelah | a mound | H5550 → | 11 times |
| וְנָתַתָּ֨ה | venatatah | and you will set up | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| עָלֶ֧יהָ | ʾaleiha | on it | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| מַחֲנ֛וֹת | machanot | armies | H4264 → | |
| וְשִׂים־ | vesim- | and set | H7760 → | 584 times |
| עָלֶ֥יהָ | ʾaleiha | on it | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| כָּרִ֖ים | karim | battering-rams | H3733 → | 16 times |
| סָבִֽיב׃ | saviv | all around | H5439 → | 336 times |
וְנָתַתָּ֨הand you will make
venatatahH5414 →2011 times
עָלֶ֜יהָon it
ʾaleihaH5921 →5755 times
מָצ֗וֹרa siege
matzorH4692 →25 times
וּבָנִ֤יתָand you will build
uvanitaH1129 →376 times
עָלֶ֙יהָ֙on it
ʾaleihaH5921 →5755 times
דָּיֵ֔קa siege-wall
dayekH1785 →6 times
וְשָׁפַכְתָּ֥and you will pour out
veshafakhtaH8210 →114 times
עָלֶ֖יהָon it
ʾaleihaH5921 →5755 times
סֹֽלְלָ֑הa mound
solelahH5550 →11 times
וְנָתַתָּ֨הand you will set up
venatatahH5414 →2011 times
עָלֶ֧יהָon it
ʾaleihaH5921 →5755 times
מַחֲנ֛וֹתarmies
machanotH4264 →
וְשִׂים־and set
vesim-H7760 →584 times
עָלֶ֥יהָon it
ʾaleihaH5921 →5755 times
כָּרִ֖יםbattering-rams
karimH3733 →16 times
סָבִֽיב׃all around
savivH5439 →336 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 6:6For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Cut down the trees and raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem. This city must be punished; there is nothing but oppression in her midst.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 32:24
See how the siege ramps are mounted against the city to capture it. And by sword and famine and plague, the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 20:19–20
When you lay siege to a city for an extended time while fighting against it to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them, because you can eat…
- Jeremiah 32:24
Through
Jeremiah 52:4So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 39:1
In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army and laid siege to the city.
- Zechariah 8:19
“This is what the LORD of Hosts says: The fasts of the fourth, the fifth, the seventh, and the tenth months will become times of joy and gladness, cheerful feasts for the house of…
- Ezekiel 24:1–2
In the ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
- Jeremiah 52:7
Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the…
- Jeremiah 39:1
Through
Ezekiel 21:22In his right hand appears the portent for Jerusalem, where he is to set up battering rams, to call for the slaughter, to lift a battle cry, to direct the battering rams against the…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 26:9
He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and tear down your towers with his axes.
- Jeremiah 33:4
For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the houses of this city and the palaces of the kings of Judah that have been torn down for defense against the…
- Ezekiel 26:9
About Ezekiel
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Gregory the Dialogist, PASTORAL RULE 2:10; Gregory the Dialogist, Homilies on Ezekiel, Book 1, Homily 12; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.