Ezekiel 4:7,8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem Thou shalt look toward Jerusalem, or toward the portraiture of it upon the tile, with a threatening countenance, as men do toward the city which they are besieging. And thine arm shall be uncovered Or, stretched out, as the Vulgate reads it. Their habits were anciently so contrived, that their right arms were disengaged from their upper garments, that they might be the more ready for action. So ancient statues and coins represent heroes with their right arms bare, and out of the sleeves of their garments. Thus God is said to make bare his arm, Isaiah 52:10, where he is represented as subduing his adversaries, and bringing salvation to his people. And thou shalt prophesy against it Thou shalt signify by these signs what shall happen to it. And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee See Ezekiel 3:25. God is said to do what was done in consequence of his command. And thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another This may mean, that the Lord would powerfully enable, and even constrain him to lie quietly in the posture appointed him, till the days were accomplished, in the sense explained in note on Ezekiel 4:4, this being intended to signify that the Chaldeans should continue the siege, and should be, as it were, fixed and fastened there, as by bonds, till the city was taken. This evidently seems to have been a real transaction, and not a vision, otherwise it does not appear how it could have been a sign to the people; for how could any thing be a sign to them, of which they were not eye-witnesses? Till thou hast ended the days of thy siege “The three hundred and ninety days, mentioned Ezekiel 4:5; Ezekiel 4:9, it seems, were designed, not only to signify the years of Israel's sin, but the continuance of the siege of Jerusalem. That siege lasted, from the beginning to the end of it, seventeen months, as appears from 2 Kings 25:1-4. But the king of Egypt, coming to relieve the city, was the occasion of raising the siege for some time, as appears from Jeremiah 37:3. So that it may reasonably be gathered from the authority of the text, joined to the circumstances of the story, that the siege lasted about thirteen months, or three hundred and ninety days.”