Make thee bonds and yokes. — This method of vivid symbolic prediction had a precedent in the conduct of Isaiah when he walked “naked and barefoot” (Isaiah 20:2). We have to realise the infinitely more vivid impression which the appearance of the prophet in this strange guise, as though he were at once a captive slave and a beast of burden, would make on the minds of men, as compared with simply warning them of a coming subjugation. The principle on which the prophet acted was that of Horace (Ep. ad Pis. 180): —
“Segnius irritant animos demissa per aures,
Quam quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et quæ
Ipse sibi tradit spectator.”
“Things that we hear less stir the inmost soul,
Than what the eye sees dramatised in act.”
So Agabus bound himself with Paul’s girdle (Acts 21:11). So Ezekiel dug through the wall of his house and carried out his stuff (Ezekiel 12:5-7). We find from Jeremiah 28:10 that the prophet obeyed the command quite literally.