2<\/strong>. a fort against it<\/em> ] The word is always used in the sing., though sometimes rightly rendered forts<\/em> (2Ki 25:1<\/span>), as the term is the name of a class<\/em> of offensive siege works. The work was probably a species of tower, of which a number might be erected “round about” the walls (2Ki 25:1<\/span>), and was used as a station for archers, or to discharge projectiles from (cf. LXX. ch. Eze 17:17<\/span>). Towers of this kind, manned by archers are seen on the Assyrian bas-reliefs. Layard, Nin. and Bab<\/em>. p. 149.<\/p>\n cast a mount<\/em> ] The “mount” or mound was an embankment raised till the besiegers standing on it were on a level with the top of the wall and able to command the streets of the city, cf. Lam 4:18<\/span>. See Isa 37:33<\/span>; Jer 6:6<\/span>; Jer 32:24<\/span>.<\/p>\n set the camp<\/em> ] set camps<\/strong>, detachments of soldiery.<\/p>\n battering rams<\/em> ] These were beams of wood with a head of iron, suspended by chains or ropes from a cross plank, and swung with great force by a number of men against the walls to batter them down. The term “round about” indicates that they were applied to different parts of the wall, perhaps where it might be thought weakest. It is not probable that the siege works were also engraved upon the brick. The latter rather by its elevation above the ground represented the city, and the siege works would be upon the ground, if we are to suppose them anywhere. But as the whole is a creation of the imagination it may be doubtful if the prophet was so precise or consistent as to put to himself the question where the siege works were placed.<\/p>\n Lay siege against it – <\/B>The prophet is represented as doing that which he portrays. The leading features of a siege are depicted. See the Jer 6:6<\/span> note.<\/P> The camp – <\/B>Encampments. The word denotes various hosts in various positions around the city.<\/P> Fort – <\/B>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.<\/P> Battering rams – <\/B>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 rams head of later times.<\/P> <\/p>\n Verse 2<\/span>. Battering rams<\/B><\/I>] carim<\/I>. 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<\/I>, whence its name. It was hung by chains or ropes, between two beams, or three<\/I> legs, so that it could admit of being drawn backward and forward some yards. Several stout men, by means of ropes, pulled it as far back as it could go, and then, suddenly letting it loose, it struck with great force against the wall which it was intended to batter and bring down. This machine was not known in the time of Homer<\/I>, as in the siege of Troy there is not the slightest mention of such. And the first notice we have of it is here<\/I>, where we see that it was employed by Nebuchadnezzar in the siege of Jerusalem, A.M. 3416. It was afterwards used by the Carthaginians<\/I> at the siege of Gades<\/I>, as Vitruvius<\/I> notes, lib. x. c. 19, in which he gives a circumstantial account of the invention, fabrication, use, and improvement of this machine. It was for the want of a machine of this kind, that the ancient sieges lasted so long; they had nothing with which to beat down or undermine the walls.<\/P> <\/p>\n Draw the figure of a siege about the city; raise a tower and bulwarks which may annoy the besieged, and defend the besiegers, from which may be shot either darts against men, or mighty stones against the walls and towers of the city. <\/P> Cast a mount; which made large, high, and strong, and near as they can, might thence by help of galleries get over the walls and enter the city. Lay out the ground also for the army of the Chaldeans to pitch their tents in, and to form their camp. <\/P> Rams; the Chaldee paraphrast understands the captains and chief leaders among the soldiers, but it is better understood of those engines wherewith besiegers did batter the walls and towers of a besieged city; an engine of great use in days of old among all warlike nations, invented, say some, in the siege of Troy. <\/P> <\/p>\n 2. fort<\/B>rather, “watch-tower”(Jer 52:4<\/span>) wherein thebesiegers could watch the movements of the besieged [GESENIUS].A wall of circumvallation [Septuagint<\/I> and ROSENMULLER].A kind of battering-ram [MAURER].The first view is best. <\/P> a mount<\/B>wherewith theChaldeans could be defended from missiles. <\/P> battering-rams<\/B>literally,”through-borers.” In Eze21:22<\/span> the same Hebrew<\/I> is translated “captains.”<\/P><\/p>\n And lay siege against it<\/strong>,…. In his own person, as in Eze 4:3<\/span>; or draw the form of a siege, or figure of an army besieging a city; or rather of the instruments and means used in a siege, as follows:<\/p>\n and build a fort against it<\/strong>: Kimchi interprets it a wooden tower, built over against the city, to subdue it; Jarchi takes it to be an instrument by which stones were cast into the city; and so the Arabic version renders it, “machines to cast stones”; the Targum, a fortress; so Nebuchadnezzar in reality did what was here only done in type,<\/p>\n 2Ki 25:1<\/span>; where the same word is used as here:<\/p>\n and cast a mount about it<\/strong>; a heap of earth cast up, in order to look into the city, cast in darts, and mount the walls; what the French call “bastion”, as Jarchi observes:<\/p>\n set the camp also against it<\/strong>; place the army in their tents about it:<\/p>\n and set [battering] rams against it round about<\/strong>; a warlike instrument, that had an iron head, and horns like a ram, with which in a siege the walls of a city were battered and beaten down. Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, interpret the word of princes and generals of the army, who watched at the several corners of the city, that none might go in and out; so the Targum seems to understand it b. The Arabic version is, “mounts to cast darts”; [See comments on Eze 21:22]<\/span>.<\/p>\n b So R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 50. 9.<\/p>\n (2) Lay siege against it.<\/strong>It must have seemed at this time unlikely that Jerusalem would soon become the subject of another siege. The only power by whom such a siege could be undertaken was Babylon, Egypt having been so thoroughly defeated as to be for a long time out of the question; and Nebuchadnezzar had now, within a few years, thrice completely conquered Judaea, had carried two of its kings, one after the other, captive in chains, and had also taken into captivity 10,000 of the chief of the people, setting up as king over the remnant a creature of his own, who was yet of the royal house of Judah. A fresh siege could only be the result of a fresh rebellion, an act, under the circumstances, of simple infatuation. Yet of this infatuation Zedekiah, through the anger of the LORD (2Ki. 24:20<\/span>), was guilty, and thus the prophecy was fulfilled. The prophecy itself is undated, but must have been between the call of Ezekiel in the fifth month of the fifth year (Eze. 1:2<\/span>) and the next date given (Eze. 8:1<\/span>), the sixth month of the sixth year. The siege began, according to Jer. 52:4<\/span>, in the tenth month of the ninth year, so that the prophecy preceded its fulfilment by only about four years.<\/p>\n Build a fort against it.<\/strong>Rather, a tower. <\/em>The several acts of a siege are graphically described. First the city is invested; then a tower is built, as was customary, of sufficient height to overlook the walls and thus obtain information of the doings of the besieged. Instruments for throwing stones or darts were also sometimes placed in such towers; next is cast a mound against it, a common operation of the ancient siege (comp. Isa. 37:33<\/span>; Jer. 32:24<\/span>), in which a sort of artificial hill was built to give the besiegers an advantage; then the camps (not merely camp) are set round the city to prevent ingress and egress; and finally the battering rams are brought against the walls. These last were heavy beams, headed with iron, and slung in towers, so that they could be swung against the walls with great force. They are frequently to be noticed in the representations of sieges found in the ruins of Nineveh. The practice of forming the end of the beam like a rams head belongs to the Greeks and Romans; but the instrument itself was much older.<\/p>\n 2<\/strong>. <\/strong> Lay siege build a fort cast a mount <\/strong> All of these ordinary acts of a besieging army are so acted out in the picture-sermon of the dumb prophet that his hearers are made to understand the calamity which must soon fall upon their national capital. The “fort” was supposed to be occupied by archers, the “mount” was built in order that the besiegers might overlook the walls of the city and command the streets (Isa 37:33<\/span>; Jer 6:6<\/span>; Jer 32:24<\/span>). <\/p>\n The camp <\/strong> Literally, camps. <\/em> The besieging army is represented as divided into encampments which guard the city at all points. How the prophet represented these soldiers, battering-rams, etc., we do not know. They hardly seem to be a part of the picture engraved upon his unbaked brick. <\/p>\n Battering-rams <\/strong> It has been doubted by a recent writer (Havet) whether battering-rams were invented as early as Ezekiel’s day, but the Assyrian monuments show pictures of them in use centuries earlier. There was usually a battering-ram in the lower part of each fort or movable tower. The Hebrew word ( kar<\/em>) does not indicate that this “batterer” must have had a ram’s head upon it. The Assyrian “ram” often had a spear-shaped head.<\/p>\n Eze 4:2 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.<\/p>\n Ver. 2. And lay siege against it.<\/strong> ] This to carnal reason seemeth childish and ridiculous; not unlike the practice of boys that make forts of snow; or of the Papists’ St Francis, who made him a wife and children of snow; fair, but soon fading comforts; or of his disciple Massaeus, who is much magnified, because at his master’s command he did – not Diogenes-like, tumble his tub, but – himself tumble up and down as a little one, in reference to that of our Saviour, a<\/em> “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Mat 18:3 But it must be considered, that what the prophet did here, he did by the word and command of the most wise God. This made the sacrifices of old, and doth make the sacraments still, to be reverend and tremendous; because holy and reverend is his name who instituted them. It cannot be said so of Popish ceremonies, men’s inventions; they have not God’s image or inscription, and are therefore frivolous and fruitless, worthily cast out of our churches. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n a<\/em> Sedulius., <\/em> lib. iii. cap. 2.<\/p>\n fort = a siege tower, or bulwark. <\/p>\n mount = embankment. <\/p>\n lay: Jer 39:1, Jer 39:2, Jer 52:4, Luk 19:42-44 <\/p>\n battering rams: or, chief leaders, Eze 21:22 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Jer 33:4 – thrown Eze 17:17 – by<\/p>\n Eze 4:2. The 70-year captivity had been going on for some time when Ezekiel began to write, but the city of Jerusalem had not yet been destroyed because the 3rd stage of the subjugation was still to be accomplished. That great event was to be preceded with a siege, and the prophet was to “act out the same by going through the motions of it in some figurative way.<\/p>\n Eze 4:2-3. And lay siege against it Make a portraiture of a siege, and of such warlike instruments as are used in sieges, figuring every thing just as when an army lies before a place with an intention of taking it. Moreover, take thou an iron pan Or rather, an iron plate, probably such as cakes were baked on. This, says Bishop Newcome, may denote the strong trenches of the besiegers, or their firmness and perseverance in the siege; or, according to others, that there was an iron wall between the besieged and God, whom the prophet represented; namely, the sins of the people, which separated between them and God, and prevented him from showing them mercy.<\/p>\n 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. a fort against it ] The word is always used in the sing., though sometimes rightly rendered forts (2Ki 25:1), as the term … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 4:2”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"