Ezekiel 4, 5. Four Symbols, Prophetic of the Coming Doom of Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 4:1-3. (A) The Siege of Jerusalem But if Ezekiel may not speak, he is a prophet still, preaching, if not by the word, at least by symbolic action; and, ominously enough, his first message is the announcement of the siege of Jerusalem and this, be it remembered, four and a half years before that siege began. How the message came to his own soul, we cannot explain except on his own assumption, that it was the voice of God: its truth was certainly justified by the sequel. He sets forth the truth symbolically by portraying upon a brick (such as the Babylonians used for writing upon) a walled city exposed to a furious siege from surrounding forts, mounds, and battering rams.