Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 4:9-17

Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · Matthew Henry · CC0 1.0 Universal

The bread which was Ezekiel's support, was to be made of coarse grain and pulse mixed together, seldom used except in times of urgent scarcity, and of this he was only to take a small quantity. Thus was figured the extremity to which the Jews were to be reduced during the siege and captivity.

Ezekiel does not plead, Lord, from my youth I have been brought up delicately, and never used to any thing like this; but that he had been brought up conscientiously, and never had eaten any thing forbidden by the law.

It will be comfortable when we are brought to suffer hardships, if our hearts can witness that we have always been careful to keep even from the appearance of evil. See what woful work sin makes, and acknowledge the righteousness of God herein.

Their plenty having been abused to luxury and excess, they were justly punished by famine. When men serve not God with cheerfulness in the abundance of all things, God will make them serve their enemies in the want of all things.

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commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 4:1-17The siege of Jerusalem and the sufferings of the people symbolized. "Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem," etc. This chapter presents difficultie…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 4:1-17EXPOSITION Prior to any detailed examination of the strange series of acts recorded in this and the following chapter, we are met with the question whether they were indeed visible and outward acts, or only imagined by…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Representation of a Famine. (b. c. 595.)THE REPRESENTATION OF A FAMINE. (B. C. 595.) The best exposition of this part of Ezekiel's prediction of Jerusalem's desolation is Jeremiah's lamentation of it, Lam. iv. 3, 4, &c., and v. 10, where he pathetically descr…Matthew Henry commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 4:9-17A symbolic famine. The moral intention for which God imposed this series of painful privations on his prophet was this, viz. to convince the people that their expectation of a speedy return to Jerusalem was vain and fut…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 4:9Take thou also unto thee, etc. The act implies, as I have said, that there were exceptions to the generally immovable attitude. The symbolism seems to have a twofold meaning. We can scarcely exclude a reference to the f…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 4:10Thy meat, etc.; better, food, here and elsewhere. Coarse as the food was, the people would have but scanty rations of it. Men were not, as usual, to measure the corn, but to weigh the bread (Le 26:26). Taking the shekel…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 4:11The sixth, part of an hin, etc. According to the varying accounts of the "hin" given by Jewish writers, this would give from 6 to 9 of a pint. And this was, like the food, to be doled out once a day. Possibly "the bread…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 4:12Thou shall bake it with dung, etc. The process of baking in ashes was as old as the time of Abraham (Genesis 18:6), and continues in Arabia and Syria to the present day. The kneaded dough was rolled into thin flat cakes…Joseph S. Exell and contributors