Ezekiel 4:3 - meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 4:3
Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
the face (as the part that turns) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
besieged
בַמָּצוֹר֙va.ma.tzOr
H4692
something hemming in · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
siege
וְצַרְתָּ֣ve.tzar.Ta
H6696
to cramp · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
sign
א֥וֹת'ot
H226
a signal (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
house
לְבֵ֥יתle.Veit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵֽלYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 8:18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mou…
Isaiah 20:3 And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;
Ezekiel 12:6 In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulders, and carry it forth in the twilight: thou shalt cover thy face, that thou see not the g…
Ezekiel 12:11 Say, I am your sign: like as I have done, so shall it be done unto them: they shall remove and go into captivity.
Ezekiel 24:24-27 Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
Leviticus 2:5 And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil.
Jeremiah 39:1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and…
Luke 2:34 And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 4:1-8
The prophet is here ordered to represent to himself and others by signs which would be proper and powerful to strike the fancy and to affect the mind, the siege of Jerusalem; and this amounted to a prediction.
I. He was ordered to engrave a draught of Jerusalem upon a tile, Eze 4:1. It was Jerusalem's honour that while she kept her integrity God had graven her upon the palms of his hands (Isa 49:16), and the names of the tribes were engraven in precious stones on the breast-plate of the high priest; but, now that the faithful city has become a harlot, a worthless brittle tile or brick is thought good enough to portray it upon. This the prophet must lay before him, that the eye may affect the…
iron pan--the divine decree as to the Chaldean army investing the city.
set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city--Ezekiel, in the person of God, represents the wall of separation between him and the people as one of iron: and the Chaldean investing army. His instrument of separating them from him, as one impossible to burst through.
set . . . face against it--inexorably (Psa 34:16). The exiles envied their brethren remaining in Jerusalem, but exile is better than the straitness of a siege.
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 4:3
Take thou unto thee an iron pan - מחבת machabath, a flat plate or slice, as the margin properly renders it: such as are used in some countries to bake bread on, called a griddle or girdle, being suspended above the fire, and kept in a proper degree of heat for the purpose. A plate like this, stuck perpendicularly in the earth, would show the nature of a wall much better than any pan could do. The Chaldeans threw such a wall round Jerusalem, to prevent the besieged from receiving any succours, and from escaping from the city.
This shall be a sign to the house of Israel - This shall be an emblematical representation of what shall actually take place.
John Gill on Ezekiel 4:3
Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan,.... Which Kimchi thinks, for its metal, represented the hardness of the hearts of the people of Israel; and, for its colour, the blackness of their sins: though others are of opinion, this being a pan in which things are fried, it may signify the miseries of the Jews in captivity; the roasting of Ahab and Zedekiah in the fire, and particularly the burning of the city: others, the wrath of God against them, and his resolution to destroy them: but rather, since the use of it was as follows,
and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city, it seems to represent all such things as are made use of by besiegers to screen them from the besieged; su…
The Church Fathers
(Ver. 3.) And you shall take for yourself an iron pan: and you shall place it as an iron wall between you and the city, and you shall set your face against it, and it shall be for a siege, and you shall surround it. This is a sign for the house of Israel. What we previously said, both the prophet himself and the description of the side, the fortifications, the rampart, and the battering rams surrounding (or surrounding), as a sign before the siege of Jerusalem, is now stated more clearly, after many things that are in the middle: The sign for the house of Israel is an iron pan, which is placed as a wall between the prophet and the city, demonstrating the great wrath of God, which shall not be tired by any prayers, nor be inclined to mercy. For just as iron tames all metals and there is nothing harder than it, so the incredible crimes of Jerusalem, by their own fault, made the gentle nature of God to be the harshest. The frying pan is also said to be a wall placed in the middle between the people and God, so as to show that the whole multitude is to be broken in a short time and reduced to nothing. However, the sternness of the face towards the city is an indication of severity, according to what we read elsewhere: The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth (Psalm 34:16).
"And take to yourself an iron frying pan, and you shall place it as an iron wall between yourself and the city, and you shall set your face firmly against it, and it shall be under siege, and you shall surround it. It is a sign for the house of Israel." Because iron is a strong metal, and food is fried in a frying pan, what is signified by the iron frying pan except the strong frying of spiritual zeal? For all spiritual zeal fries the soul of a teacher, because he is greatly tormented when he sees any weak persons abandoning eternal things and taking delight in temporal things. How well Paul had taken up the iron frying pan, when, tormented by zeal for souls, he said: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not burned?" His own heart, which he had set on fire with zeal for souls—what else had he made it but a frying pan, in which he burned with love of virtues against vices? For the fact that he was burned was the frying pan. For he was inflamed and he cooked, because he was set on fire with bitterness, yet from his afflicted thought he prepared the nourishment of virtues. But what does it mean that the prophet places the same frying pan as an iron wall between himself and the city, except that the same strong zeal which is now exercised in the mind of the teacher will be a witness between him and the soul for which he is zealous against vices on the day of the final judgment? So that even if the one being taught refuses to listen, the teacher nevertheless, because of the zeal he displays, will not be held guilty for the negligence of his hearer. Therefore he places an iron wall between himself and the city, because at the time of vengeance the teacher is fortified from the danger of damnation by that very thing through which he now suffers the frying of his heart through zealous watchfulness. For there is no sacrifice to almighty God such as zeal for souls. Hence the Psalmist says: "Zeal for your house has consumed me." How much the frying of the heart that is driven by spiritual zeal pleases the almighty Lord God is clearly shown when fine flour is commanded to be offered in sacrifice through the law. Concerning which it is written: "It shall be fried in a pan with oil sprinkled on it, and the priest who has succeeded his father by right shall offer it hot as a most sweet odor to the Lord, and it shall be wholly burned upon the…
Dictionary and topics
Iron — Tubal-Cain is the first-mentioned worker in iron (Gen. 4:22). The Egyptians wrought it at Sinai before the Exodus. David prepared it in great abundance for the temple (1 Chr. 22:3: 29:7). The…
Pan — A vessel of metal or earthenware used in culinary operations; a cooking-pan or frying-pan frequently referred to in the Old Testament (Lev. 2:5; 6:21; Num. 11:8; 1 Sam. 2:14, etc.). The “ash-pans”…
Instruction · Il — Il
Iron · Pans — Pans
Pantomime · By Ezekiel — By Ezekiel
Prophets · Frequently in their actions, &c were made signs to the people — Frequently in their actions, &c were made signs to the people
Walls · Were probably often strengthened with plates of iron or brass — Were probably often strengthened with plates of iron or brass
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Ezekiel 4:1-3
1. Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:
1. Et tu, Fili hominis, sume tibi laterem, et pone ipsum coram facie tua, et pinge super ipsum urbem, nempe Hierosolymam:
2. 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.
2. Et pone contra eam obsidionem, et extrue contra eam turrim, et funde adversus eam aggerem, et pone adversus eam castra, et statue contra eam arietes in circuitu.
3. Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy…
The prophet was to take on the role of God in this dramatic scene. The iron griddle set up between him and the city showed that Jerusalem had cut itself off from God. Meanwhile, the prophet was to turn his face aggressively toward the city, showing that God’s attention had not flagged but that he was implacably determined to destroy Jerusalem in the coming siege.
Rashi on Ezekiel 4:3
an iron wall A semblance of the city wall that serves as a partition between the army and the city.
that is a sign that so will Jerusalem come under siege.
