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Expanded Comments |
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| 1 Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it a city, even Jerusalem: |
Take thee a tile – The use of such signs was common with the prophets of olden times. R2223:4
Even Jerusalem – Although the trouble is divided into two portions, it is all represented as coming against one people, as illustrated by the one capital city. C295; R1341:4
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| 2 and lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it round about. |
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| 3 And take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. |
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| 4 Moreover lie thou upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity. |
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| 5 For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be unto thee a number of days, even three hundred ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. |
390 days – Some suppose this dates from the revolt, when they went into idolatry, about 390 years before the desolation of Jerusalem. C295; R1341:4
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| 6 And again, when thou hast accomplished these, thou shalt lie on thy right side, and shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah: forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it unto thee. |
40 days – Some suppose the wrath against the two tribes dated from 40 years before the desolation when, under Manasseh, the two tribes became idolaters. R1341:4; C295
Each day for a year – Time has its type and antitype, like every other part. HG49:3
The word day often stands for epoch or period. Thus the creative days were not 24-hour days. F19
A literal year, Jewish reckoning, contains 360 days; and since in prophecy a day represents a year of actual time, each symbolic "time" would be 360 years. R5564:3
A prophetic year of 360 days, used to symbolize 360 years, is an arbitrary arrangement peculiar to its intended use. It is neither a Lunar year of 354 1/3 days nor a Solar year of 365 1/4 days. R1979:6
A day for a year is Bible usage in symbolic prophecy. B91, B66; Q846:2; OV81:1; HG519:5
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| 7 And thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with thine arm uncovered; and thou shalt prophesy against it. |
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| 8 And, behold, I lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to the other, till thou hast accomplished the days of thy siege. |
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| 9 Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, even three hundred ninety days, shalt thou eat thereof. |
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| 10 And thy food which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it. |
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| 11 And thou shalt drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time shalt thou drink. |
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| 12 And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it in their sight with dung that cometh out of man. |
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| 13 And Jehovah said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations whither I will drive them. |
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| 14 Then said I, Ah Lord Jehovah! behold, my soul hath not been polluted; for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn of beasts; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth. |
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| 15 Then he said unto me, See, I have given thee cow’s dung for mans dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread thereon. |
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| 16 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure, and in dismay: |
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| 17 that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity. |
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