“And you shall set your face towards the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered, and you will prophesy against it, and behold I lay bands on you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to another until you have accomplished the days of your siege.”
The suggestion that he set his face towards the siege of Jerusalem may indicate that he turned to lay facing Jerusalem, or that he set his face towards it in his mind, or more probably that he set his face towards his own representation of that siege in the model he had made, having the real city in mind. The baring of the arm indicated an arm ready for action (compare Isaiah 52:10). He was representing what God was going to do, act against Jerusalem through Nebuchadnezzar.
‘And you will prophesy against it.' His words of prophecy would indicate to his hearers that God was about to carry out His purpose with regard to Jerusalem.
‘And behold I lay bands on you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to another until you have accomplished the days of your siege.' Once Ezekiel was lying in the way that God had told him, God would ‘lay bands on him'. This may mean psychologically as a result of His command, or possibly even by some kind of limited paralysis. Or it may refer back to Ezekiel 3:25. But, whichever it was, he was to remain there, not turning until the full time had been accomplished. ‘The days of your siege.' While lying there and looking towards his model of the siege of Jerusalem, with arm laid bare ready for action, he was indicating that it would be besieged and ensuring it came about. He was, as it were, besieging it beforehand. There may be the thought here that the actual siege would last for about a year. Thus the pain that Ezekiel was suffering presaged the pain that Jerusalem would suffer,