5<\/strong>. Read with R.V., for I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be unto thee a number of days<\/strong>, even 390 days. The number of years during which the people shall bear their iniquity is symbolized by the number of days during which Ezekiel lies on his side, as is said explicitly in Eze 4:6<\/em><\/span> “a day for a year.”<\/p>\n According to the number of the days – <\/B>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 Jeroboams rebellion to the time at which Ezekiel wrote (circa 390 years); and in the case of Judah from Josiahs 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. The whole number of years is 430 Eze 4:5-6<\/span>, the number assigned of old for the affliction of the descendants of Abraham Gen 15:13<\/span>; Exo 12:40<\/span>. The forty years apportioned to Judah Eze 4:6<\/span>, bring to mind the 40 years passed in the wilderness; and these were years not only of punishment, but also of discipline and preparatory to restoration, so Ezekiel would intimate the difference between the punishments of Israel and of Judah to be this, that the one would be of much longer duration with no definite hope of recovery, but the other would be imposed with the express purpose of the renewal of mercy.<\/P> <\/p>\n This verse explains the former. I have pointed out the number of years wherein apostate Israel sinned against me, and I did bear with them according to the number of days, wherein thou must lie on thy left side. Three hundred and ninety days. See Eze 4:4<\/span>. There is some difference, though of no great moment, in fixing the periods of beginning and ending these prophetic days. These years some begin at Solomons falling to idolatry, in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, and end them in the fifth of Zedekiahs captivity. Others begin at the fourth year of Rehoboam, and end them in the twenty-first year of the captivity. Others begin them in the first of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, when the kingdom was divided, and then they must end about the seventeenth year of the captivity. The first supputation to me is much the likeliest, and agrees nearest with the year wherein this prophet begins his prophecy. It is not altogether unlikely that the prophet may intimate, though obscurely, the continuance of the siege of Jerusalem, which the Chaldeans began on the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah, and lasted the remaining two months of the ninth year, and the whole tenth year except some five months, wherein the Babylonians retired to fight the Egyptians, beat them, spoiled them, and returned to the siege of Jerusalem, which lasted to the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiahs eleventh year. So that one whole year, and three weeks, and four days, or thirteen months, at thirty days in each month, taking up three hundred and ninety days, and discounting the five months and odd days in the Egyptian expedition, you come to the continuance of three hundred and ninety days in the threatened siege, and possibly this may be the intent of the prophecy. <\/P> <\/p>\n 5. three hundred and ninety days<\/B>Thethree hundred ninety years of punishment appointed for Israel, andforty for Judah, cannot refer to the siege of Jerusalem. That siegeis referred to in Eze 4:1-3<\/span>,and in a sense restricted to the literal siege, but comprehending thewhole<\/I> train of punishment to be inflicted for their sin;therefore we read here merely of its sore pressure, not of itsresult. The sum of three hundred ninety and forty years is fourhundred thirty, a period famous in the history of thecovenant-people, being that of their sojourn in Egypt (Exo 12:40<\/span>;Exo 12:41<\/span>; Gal 3:17<\/span>).The forty alludes to the forty years in the wilderness. Elsewhere(Deu 28:68<\/span>; Hos 9:3<\/span>),God threatened to bring them back to Egypt, which must mean, notEgypt literally, but a bondage as bad as that one in Egypt. So nowGod will reduce them to a kind of new Egyptian bondage to the world:Israel, the greater transgressor, for a longer period than Judah(compare Eze 20:35-38<\/span>).Not the whole of the four hundred thirty years of the Egypt state isappointed to Israel; but this shortened by the forty years of thewilderness sojourn, to imply, that a way is open to their return tolife by their having the Egypt state merged into that of thewilderness; that is, by ceasing from idolatry and seeking in theirsifting and sore troubles, through God’s covenant, a restoration torighteousness and peace [FAIRBAIRN].The three hundred ninety, in reference to the sin<\/I> of Israel,was also literally true, being the years from the setting up of thecalves by Jeroboam (1Ki12:20-33<\/span>), that is, from 975 to 583 B.C.:about<\/I> the year of the Babylonians captivity; and perhaps theforty of Judah refers to that part of Manasseh’s fifty-five years’reign in which he had not repented, and which, we are expressly told,was the cause of God’s removal of Judah, notwithstanding Josiah’sreformation (1Ki 21:10-16<\/span>;2Ki 23:26<\/span>; 2Ki 23:27<\/span>).<\/P><\/p>\n For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity<\/strong>,…. Or the iniquity which for so many years they have been guilty of; that is, the punishment of it:<\/p>\n according to the number of the days<\/strong>; a day for a year;<\/p>\n three hundred and ninety days<\/strong>; which signify three hundred and ninety years; and so many years there were from the revolt of the ten tribes from Rehoboam, and the setting up the calves at Dan and Bethel, to the destruction of Jerusalem; which may be reckoned thus: the apostasy was in the fourth year of Rehoboam, so that there remained thirteen years of his reign, for he reigned seventeen years; Abijah his successor reigned three years; Asa, forty one; Jehoshaphat, twenty five; Joram, eight; Ahaziah, one; Athaliah, seven; Joash, forty; Amaziah, twenty nine: Uzziah, fifty two; Jotham, sixteen; Ahaz, sixteen; Hezekiah, twenty nine; Manasseh, fifty five; Amos, two; Josiah, thirty one; Jehoahaz, three months; Jehoiakim, eleven years; Jeconiah, three months and ten days; and Zedekiah, eleven years; in all three hundred and ninety years. Though Grotius reckons them from the fall of Solomon to the carrying captive of the ten tribes by Shalmaneser. According to Jerom, both the three hundred and ninety days, and the forty days, were figurative of the captivities of Israel and Judah. The captivity of Israel, or the ten tribes, began under Pekah king of Israel, 1Ki 15:29<\/span>; when many places in the kingdom were wasted; from whence, to the fortieth year of Ahasuerus, when the Jews were entirely set at liberty, were three hundred and ninety years e; and the captivity of Judah began in the first year of Jeconiah, which, to the first of Cyrus, were forty years. The Jewish writers make these years to be the time of the idolatry of these people in their chronicle f they say, from hence we learn that Israel provoked the Lord to anger, from the time they entered into the land until they went out of it, three hundred and ninety years. Which, according to Jarchi and Kimchi, are, to be reckoned partly in the times of the judges, and partly in the times of the kings of Israel; in the times of the former, a hundred and eleven years: from Micah, till the ark was carried captive in the days of Eli, forty years; and from the time of Jeroboam to Hoshea, two hundred and forty; which make three hundred and ninety one: but the last of Hoshea is not of the number, since it was in the ninth year of his reign the city of Samaria was taken. So Jarchi. Kimchi’s reckoning is different. Abarbinel is of opinion that these years describe the four hundred and thirty years of Israel’s bondage in Egypt; though, he says, they may be understood of the time of the division of the kingdom under Rehoboam, from whence, to the destruction of Jerusalem, were three hundred and ninety years; which sense is best, and is what is first given;<\/p>\n so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel<\/strong>; as many days as answer to these years; by the house of Israel is meant not merely the ten tribes, who had been carried captive long before this time, but such of them also as were mixed with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.<\/p>\n e Vid. Lyra in loc. f Seder Olam Rabba, c. 26. p. 73.<\/p>\n (5) The years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days.<\/strong>Comp. Num. 14:34<\/span>. In regard to the number of the years, see Excursus II. at the end of this book.<\/p>\n (6) The iniquity of the house of Judah forty days.<\/strong>This forty days is clearly subsequent and additional to the 390 days, making in all a period of 430 days. (On these numbers see Excursus II. at the end of this book.) The great disproportion between the two is in accordance with the difference in the two parts of the nation, and the consequent Divine dealings with them. Judah had remained faithful to its appointed rulers of the house of David, several of whose kings had been eminently devout men; through whatever mixture with idolatry it had yet always retained the worship of Jehovah, and had kept up the Aaronic priesthood, and preserved with more or less respect the law of Moses. It was now entering upon the period of the Babylonish captivity, from which, after seventy years, a remnant was to be again restored to keep up the people of the Messiah. Israel, on the other hand, had set up a succession of dynasties, and not one of all their kings had been a God-fearing man; they had made Baal their national god, and had made priests at their pleasure of the lowest of the people, and in consequence of their sins had been carried into a captivity from which they never returned.<\/p>\n EXCURSUS B: ON CHAPTER 4:5, 6.<\/strong><\/p>\n The explanation of the periods of time here mentioned has occasioned great difficulty and difference of opinion among the commentators. The subject may be best approached by first observing what points are clearly determined in the text itself, and then excluding all interpretations which are inconsistent with these. The periods cannot be understood of events occurring in the course of the siege because, as already said, the numbers are expressly said to stand for years. Moreover, even if they could be taken of literal days, there would be nothing to correspond to them, since from the investment of the city to the flight of Zedekiah was 539 days, and to the destruction of the Temple twenty-eight days more (2Ki. 25:1<\/span>; 2Ki. 25:3<\/span>; 2Ki. 25:8<\/span>).<\/p>\n Of two other explanations, it is only necessary to say a word: that of Theodoret is based upon the Greek version, which, by a curious mistake, has 190 instead of 390 days, and of course falls to the ground when the true number is considered; the ancient Jews and some early Christians interpreted the passage of a period of 430 years, which they conceived was to be fulfilled from the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, in the second year of the Emperor Vespasian, to its expected restoration, which the event has shown to be groundless. This takes for its starting-point the evident allusion of Ezekiel to Num. 14:14<\/span>, After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year shall ye bear your iniquities; and the earlier prophecies declaring that the people in punishment for their sins should be brought again into Egypt, which yet should not be Egypt (Deu. 28:68<\/span>; Hos. 8:13<\/span>; Hos. 9:3<\/span>; Hos. 11:5<\/span>), but Assyria or Babylonia, as is expressly defined in some of these prophecies. The meaning is plainly that they should endure sufferings corresponding to the Egyptian bondage, but in another locality. Ezekiel himself elsewhere (Eze. 20:35<\/span>) speaks of Gods dealings with the captives as a pleading with them in the wilderness. Now if this be once recognised as the basis of Ezekiels languagethe representation of the future in terms of the historic past, which is so common in all prophecythere need be no difficulty in the mention of the precise numbers. They become mere catch-words to carry the mind to the period he would indicate. The wanderings in the wilderness were always reckoned at 40 years, and the sojourn in Egypt (see Exo. 12:40<\/span>) at 430 years. Ezekiel merely follows here his habit of putting everything into vivid and concrete form. Are his people to suffer for their sins as they suffered of old? Judah is to endure the 40 years of wilderness sufferings, and Israel those of the Egyptian bondage; only, if he spoke of the latter as 430 years, it might seem that Israel was to endure the punishment belonging to both Israel and Judah, and therefore he takes from it the period already assigned to Judah, leaving for Israel 390 years. This accounts for his not mentioning the 430 years at all, and could be done the more easily because the actual bondage<\/em> in Egypt was far less than either number. No precise period whatever is intended by the mention of these numbers, but only a vivid comparison of the future woes to the past. Again, whatever might be their present sufferings, they still had hope, and even indulged in defiance, while Jerusalem and the Temple stood. This hope was vain. The holy city and the Temple itself should be destroyed, and then they would know that the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them indeed for the punishment of their sins. The siege of Jerusalem is, therefore, the prominent feature of the prophecy; and there is foretold, as the consequence of this, the eating of defiled bread among the Gentiles (Eze. 4:13<\/span>) as in Egypt of old, together with the various forms of want and suffering set forth in the striking symbolism of this chapter.<\/p>\n Eze 4:5<\/span><\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong> Three hundred and ninety days<\/em>] This number of years, see Eze 4:6<\/span> will take us back, with sufficient exactness, from the year in which Jerusalem was sacked by Nebuchadrezzar to the first year of Jeroboam’s reign, when national idolatry began in Israel. <\/p>\n Eze 4:5 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.<\/p>\n Ver. 5. Three hundred and ninety days.<\/strong> ] That is, say some, the siege of Jerusalem shall continue so many days – via, thirteen months, or thereabouts. But they do better, who, taking a day for a year in both the accounts, as <\/em> Eze 4:6 and making the forty of Judah to run along with the last year of Israel’s 390, end both at Nabuzaradan’s carrying away to Babylon the last relics of Israel and Judah: and begin Israel’s years at Jeroboam’s apostasy, and Judah’s at Huldah’s prophecy in the eighteenth of Josiah’s reign, when the law was found but not observed by that idolatrous people, as appeareth by the complaints made of them by Zephaniah and Jeremiah; neither were they warned by their brethren’s miseries, the ten tribes being now carried into captivity. Compare Eze 1:1-2<\/span> ; Eze 3:15<\/span> ; Eze 3:24-27<\/span> ; Eze 8:1<\/span> .<\/p>\n three hundred and ninety days. These were to be literal “days” to Ezekiel, and were to represent 390 literal “years”. The date of the command is not material to the understanding of this prophecy. The meaning of the expression “bear their iniquity” (see note on Eze 4:4) determines the interpretation as referring to the duration of the punishment, and not to the period of the iniquity which brought it down. The 390 days stand for 390 years and the 40 days for 40 years, the duration of the punishment of Israel and Judah respec tively. As this has to do with the city Jerusalem (verses: Eze 4:1-3), the periods must necessarily be conterminous with something that affects the ending of its punishment. ‘This was effected solely by the decree for the restoration and rebuilding of Jerusalem in 454 B.C. (App-50). Three hundred and ninety years take us back to the sixteenth year of Asa, when Baasha made war on Judah (844 B.C. 2Ch 16:1. App-50); which was followed by the solemn announcement by the prophet Jehu against Baasha of the quickly coming punishment of Israel (1Ki 16:1, &c.), The punishment of Judah, in like manner, began forty years betore (455-4 B.C.): viz. in 495-4 B.C.; 495 (his fifth year), being the year of Jehoiakim’s burning of the roll. The prophecy of this punishment was given in his fourth year (Jer 25:1, Jer 25:9-11), and the execution of it speedily followed. This symbolical action of Ezekiel shows no how long Jerusalem’s punishment lasted, and when it ended. <\/p>\n I have: Isa 53:6 <\/p>\n three: This number of years will take us back from the year in which Judea was finally desolated by Nebuzar-adan, bc 584, to the establishment of idolatry in Israel by Jeroboam, bc 975. “Beginning from 1Ki 12:33. Ending Jer 52:30. <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Isa 20:2 – Go Isa 20:3 – three Eze 4:4 – upon Eze 4:9 – three<\/p>\n Eze 4:5. The children of Israel were inclined toward idolatry from the beginning of their history as was shown at Mt. Sinai and afterward. But the specific length of time named in this verse should be dated from the enactment of national idolatry (1Ki 12:26) which was in 975 B.C. to 585 B.C., and that was about the date of Ezekiels performance just described.<\/p>\n 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. 5. Read with R.V., for I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be unto thee a number of days, … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 4:5”<\/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-20545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20545","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=20545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20545"}],"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: 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
In the first place, it is expressly stated in each of these verses that these days represent years. No interpretation, therefore, can be admitted which requires them to be literal days. Secondly, it is plain that the period is one of bearing their iniquity; not a period in which they are becoming sinful, but one in which they are suffering the punishment of their sin. Thirdly, it is plain from the whole structure of the symbolism that this period is in some way intimately connected with the siege of Jerusalem. Finally, the two periods of 390 and of forty days are distinct. If the symbolism was carried out in act, they must have been consecutive, and it is still the natural inference that they were so, even if it was only in vision. The two periods together, then, constitute 430 days; yet this is not to be emphasised, since no express mention is made of the whole period.
These points of themselves exclude several of the explanations that have from time to time been put forward. Among these must be mentioned, first, one which has perhaps been more generally adopted than any other of its class, the supposition that the 390 years of Israels punishment are to be reckoned from some point in the reign of Jeroboam to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. This, however, was far more a period of accumulation of Israels transgression than of suffering its punishment; neither in this case could the period be fairly considered as extending beyond the end of the kingdom of Israel (which lasted in all but 253 years) unless it was also extended indefinitely. Moreover, expositors who adopt this view are quite unable to give any satisfactory account of Judahs forty years; for the proposal to reckon them from the reformation of Josiah is quite at variance with the character of the period described.
Every attempt to make these periods refer to a future time, stretching on far beyond the date of the prophecy, fails for want of any definite event at the end of either 390, 40, or 430 years.<\/p>\n
Another ancient interpretation makes of the period of 430 years, the time from the building to the destruction of Solomons Temple. This is open to the same objections already urged to others, and besides, it makes the total number the prominent thing, while there is no point of division for the 390 and the 40. St. Jerome reckoned the 390 years from the captivity of the northern kingdom to the deliverance of the Jews from danger in the time of Esther, and the 40 years from the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar to the decree of Cyrus for the restoration of the Jews; but his chronology is at fault, and the former part of the explanation takes no notice of the main point of the siege of Jerusalem, while the events in the time of Esther cannot be looked upon as the termination of the punishment of the Israelites.
The later Jews make up the two periods by selecting throughout the period of the Judges and the monarchy the various times in which the sins of Israel and of Judah were especially marked, and adding these together; but this is utterly arbitrary and unsatisfactory.
So much space has been given to these different interpretations in order to show that there is no definite term of years, either before or after the date of the prophecy, which the ingenuity of the commentators has been able to discover, satisfying the conditions of the prophecy itself. We are, therefore, left free to accept the interpretation now generally given by the best modern expositors.<\/p>\nFuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"