Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 4:9–end
The best exposition of this part of Ezekiel's prediction of Jerusalem's desolation is Jeremiah's lamentation of it, Lam 4:3, Lam 4:4, etc., and Lam 4:10, where he pathetically describes the terrible famine that was in Jerusalem during the siege and the sad effects of it.
I. The prophet here, to affect the people with the foresight of it, must confine himself for 390 days to coarse fare and short commons, and that ill-dressed, for they should want both food and fuel.
1. His meat, for the quality of it, was to be of the worst bread, made of but little wheat and barley, and the rest of beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, such as we feed horses or fatted hogs with, and this mixed, as m…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ezekiel 4:17
astonied one with another--mutually regard one another with astonishment: the stupefied look of despairing want.
Next: Ezekiel Chapter 5
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 4:16
I will break the staff of bread - They shall be besieged till all the bread is consumed, till the famine becomes absolute; see Kg2 25:3 : "And on the ninth of the fourth month, the famine prevailed in the city; and There Was No Bread for the people of the land." All this was accurately foretold, and as accurately fulfilled.
Abp. Newcome on Kg2 25:6 observes: "This number of years will take us back, with sufficient exactness, from the year in which Jerusalem was sacked by Nebuchadnezzar to the first year of Jeroboam's reign, when national idolatry began in Israel. The period of days seems to predict the duration of the siege by the Babylonians, Kg2 25:9, deducting from the year five months an…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Ezekiel 4:17
That they may want bread and water,.... Or, "because they shall want" (l) &c. therefore they shall eat the one, and drink the other, by weight; or they shall do this till there shall be none to eat and drink:
and be astonished one with another; when they shall find they cannot relieve one another; and not knowing what method to take for the support of nature:
and consume away for their iniquity; their flesh upon them black through famine, putrid and noisome; and they wasting, pining, and consuming; reduced to skin and bones; and disagreeable to look upon; and all because of their sins and iniquities.
(l) "eo quod", Munster, Vatablus; "propterea", Tigurine version.
