Ezekiel 4:5
in Ezekiel 4For 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.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be unto thee a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
KJV
For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
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This verse in Ezekiel 4
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
According to the number of the days - Or, “to be to thee as a number of days (even as)” etc. Compare the margin reference. Some conceive that these “days” were the years during which Israel and Judah sinned, and date in the case of Israel from Jeroboam’s rebellion to the time at which Ezekiel wrote (circa 390 years); and in the case of Judah from Josiah’s reformation. But it seems more in accordance with the other “signs,” to suppose that they represent not that which had been, but that which shall be.
This site's exposition
lie down on your left side
on Ezekiel 4:4-6
Ezekiel is to lie “on your left side” for “390 days,” then “on your right side” for “40 days” with “a day for each year.” The text gives the numbers without naming the events they measure, and Keil notes that the older writers already disagreed over which years are meant.
This site's exposition
according to the number of years of their iniquity
God assigns 390 days, one for each year of the iniquity of Israel, and Ezekiel is to bear it. Readers count the years in different ways. Wesley starts them at Solomon's turn to idolatry and ends them in the time of Zedekiah, while others count from the revolt of Jeroboam.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
Ezekiel was to lie down on his right side for 40 days and 150 on his left, to dig through a wall and flee, portraying in himself the captivity. Another time Ezekiel is to sharpen a sword to a point, shave his head with it …
(Ver. 4 seqq.) And you shall lie on your left side, and you shall bear the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, according to the number of days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of days, three hundred and ninety days; so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when you have completed these, you shall lie again on your right side, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
I have laid - I have pointed out the number of years wherein apostate Israel sinned against me, and I did bear with them. Years - These years probably began at Solomon's falling to idolatry, in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, and ended in the fifth of Zedekiah's captivity.
He is then to lie forty days upon his right side, and so long to bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, the kingdom of the two tribes, because the measure-filling sins of that people were those which they were guilty of during the last forty years before their captivity, since the thirteenth year of Josiah, when Jeremiah began to prophesy ( Jer. i.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
The famine that should rage within the city; this is signified by his eating very coarse fare, and confining himself to a little of it, so long as this typical representation lasted,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
That siege is referred to in Eze 4:1-3, and in a sense restricted to the literal siege, but comprehending the whole train of punishment to be inflicted for their sin; therefore we read here merely of its sore pressure, not of its result.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַאֲנִ֗י | vaani | and I | H589 → | 874 times |
| נָתַ֤תִּֽי | natati | I have assigned | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| לְךָ֙ | lekha | to you | ||
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| שְׁנֵ֣י | shenei | [the] years of | H8141 → | 877 times |
| עֲוֹנָ֔ם | ʾavonam | iniquity their | H5771 → | 233 times |
| לְמִסְפַּ֣ר | lemispar | to [the] number of | H4557 → | 134 times |
| יָמִ֔ים | yamim | days | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| שְׁלֹשׁ־ | shelosh- | three | H7969 → | 432 times |
| מֵא֥וֹת | meot | hundreds | H3967 → | 581 times |
| וְתִשְׁעִ֖ים | vetishim | and ninety | H8673 → | 20 times |
| י֑וֹם | yom | day[s] | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| וְנָשָׂ֖אתָ | venasata | and you will bear | H5375 → | 656 times |
| עֲוֹ֥ן | ʾavon | [the] iniquity of | H5771 → | 233 times |
| בֵּֽית־ | beit- | [the] house of | H1004 → | 2046 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ | yisrael | Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
וַאֲנִ֗יand I
vaaniH589 →874 times
נָתַ֤תִּֽיI have assigned
natatiH5414 →2011 times
לְךָ֙to you
lekha
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
שְׁנֵ֣י[the] years of
sheneiH8141 →877 times
עֲוֹנָ֔םiniquity their
ʾavonamH5771 →233 times
לְמִסְפַּ֣רto [the] number of
lemisparH4557 →134 times
יָמִ֔יםdays
yamimH3117 →2304 times
שְׁלֹשׁ־three
shelosh-H7969 →432 times
מֵא֥וֹתhundreds
meotH3967 →581 times
וְתִשְׁעִ֖יםand ninety
vetishimH8673 →20 times
י֑וֹםday[s]
yomH3117 →2304 times
וְנָשָׂ֖אתָand you will bear
venasataH5375 →656 times
עֲוֹ֥ן[the] iniquity of
ʾavonH5771 →233 times
בֵּֽית־[the] house of
beit-H1004 →2046 times
יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃Israel
yisraelH3478 →2507 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
Isaiah 53:6We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
it leads to
- 1 Peter 2:25
For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
- 1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,
- Psalms 119:176
I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commandments.
- Isaiah 55:7
Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely…
- Romans 4:25
He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.
- 1 Peter 2:25
Through
Numbers 14:34In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 4:6
When 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…
- Numbers 13:25
After forty days the men returned from spying out the land,
- Jeremiah 18:9–10
And if at another time I announce that I will build up and establish a nation or kingdom,
- Ezekiel 4:6
About Ezekiel
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Theodoret of Cyrus, LIVES OF SIMEON STYLITES 12.