Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it [for] a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This [shall be] a sign to the house of Israel.
Ver. 3. Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan.] Sartaginem ferream, in token of God's hard and inflexible hatred bent against so hard-hearted a people; whom he will therefore fry as in a pan, and seethe as in a pot, Jer 1:13 so that they shall "pine away in their iniquities."
Set thy face against it, and thou shalt lay siege.] This the prophet was to do in the name and person of God and his soldiers, the Chaldeans. Hard hearts make hard times, yea, they make Deum, natura sua mollem, misericordem, et melleum, durum esse et ferreum, as one saith - God to harden his hand, and hasten men's destruction.