Глава 4

Ezek.4:1–2. And you, son of man, take yourself a plinth and place it before your face, and write on it the city of Jerusalem, and put a fence around it, and build a fence over it, and surround it with a fort, and put regiments around it, and set up archers around it. God commands to paint the siege of Jerusalem, and the image is made on plinth, to signify the frailty of those living in it, because they created their church not “on stone,” in imitation of the “wise man,” but “on the arctic fox.” Why “when the rivers came, the rain came down, the winds blew, and the church was shaken, and the forest fell, and there was great destruction thereof” (Matthew 7:24-27). Ezek.4:3. And thou shalt take for thee an iron pan, and let thou put it into the wall of iron between thee and the city, and thou shalt prepare thy face, and it shall be in the shutter, and thou shalt shut it: this is a sign unto the son of Israel. The prophet is given the command to present himself as the image of God, which is why he hears the order to put an iron frying pan between himself and between the city written on the plinth, and learns from this that God, although he will not leave Jerusalem and will see what is happening in it, however, his inhabitants will not be honored with His providence for them, but, as if held back by some iron wall, will appear not to see what is happening there, and will not hear beseeching Him. Do this, God says to the Prophet, so that in this prophecy, expressed not in words, but in deeds, give a sign to those who now do not submit and will contradict. Ezek.4:4–5. And thou shalt sleep on thy left side, and thou shalt lay down the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, according to the number of days fifty and a hundred, and sleep on it in the bed, and thou shalt lay down their iniquities. And I gave you two of their iniquities for the number of days, nine ten and a hundred days, and you shall inflict iniquity on the house of Israel. Ezek.4:6. And do this After Solomon, under Rehoboam, the twelve tribes were divided, and ten of them were called either Ephraim or Israel, and Judah and Benjamin were called Judah, but they constituted one people, descended from Israel and from Abraham. Why did God, as if speaking about one people, bring together again what He had said before separately? For, having separated Israel one hundred and fifty days, and Judah forty days, he again united these days into one hundred and ninety days, as if speaking of one body and one relationship. But after copulation he divides again and says: and thou shalt sleep on the ribs of thy right hand, and thou shalt stir up the iniquity of the house of Judah for fourty days, a day for one year thou shalt lay it down unto thee. Because the iniquity of so-called Israel is greater. They, having completely departed from God, either served young women, or worshiped all kinds of idols. Therefore he gives Israel one hundred and fifty days, and Judah fourty, counting each day for a year. And fourty days for Judah mean fourty years remaining until seventy years, because God, through the mouth of the Prophet Jeremiah, announced that they would spend seventy years in Babylon; but thirty years have already passed: for in the thirtieth year of the captivity the divine Ezekiel began the prophecy, and from the fifth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin to the first year of the reign of Cyrus the Persian the remaining fourty years will be fulfilled. And this can be calculated not only from the time books, but also from the Divine Scriptures. For the blessed Prophet Jeremiah and the book of Chronicles show that in the “thirty-seventh year” after the captivity of Joachim, also called Jehoiachin, Evilmerodach “lifted up his head” and “brought him out of the prison house” into the year of his kingdom (2 Kings 25:27). After him, Belshazzar did not reign among the Babylonians for a long time, because he was evil and was soon killed; his reign lasted about three years. For in the third year of his reign Daniel saw a vision. After him, Darius, the son of Assuir, a Mede by birth, entered the kingdom; but he did not rule the kingdom for much time. And blessed Daniel lets us know this when he said: “in the first year of Darius the son of Assuir, in the first year of his kingdom, I Daniel understood in the books the number of years, about which the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the Prophet, at the end of the desolation of Jerusalem seventy years” (Dan. 9:1.2). Therefore, the fourty days assigned to Judah signify the number of the remaining fourty years, and the one hundred and fifty days assigned to Israel is the number of one hundred and fifty years, after which the city was built, filled with inhabitants, surrounded by a wall, fenced with trenches, and other cities of Israel and Judah were again fortified, and the number of inhabitants in them increased. This happened in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, for whom Nehemiah was a cupbearer, and having asked the king for mercy, he returned to Judea with great zeal and did everything that had been said before. And the scripture of Ezra makes this clear. But if anyone wants to find out exactly the number of years, then let him take the fifth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin as the beginning of the calculation, because from it we counted fourty years. For you will find fourty years before the first year of Cyrus the Persian, - hence the remaining twenty-nine years of the reign of Cyrus, then seven years of the reign of Cambyses, another thirty-five years of the reign of Darius Hystaspes, in addition twenty years under Xerxes, and nineteen under Artaxerxes; in the twentieth year he ordered the construction of the walls of the city. And let no one say that the building of Jerusalem did not bring any benefit to Israel, which had long ago separated from the tribe of Judah. Upon returning from captivity, the division did not continue, but all who had the opportunity to return lived unanimously, having Jerusalem as their capital. Ezek.4:7. And may you prepare your face for the conclusion of Jerusalem, and strengthen your arm, and prophesy against it. “Preparing the face” means indignation, and “establishing the muscle” means inflicting punishment. Ezek.4:8. And behold, I placed bonds upon you, and without turning from your side to your side, the days of your imprisonment will end. From what you do, they should know that before a certain time they will not have any opportunity to return. Why should you spend the entire appointed time on one side or the other, motionless, so that the verdict pronounced on them can be ascertained. Ezek.4:9–10. And you, son of man, take for yourself wheat, and barley, and beans, and lamb 6, and millet, and wheat, 7 and put one clay into a vessel: and I will make for myself bread, according to the number of days, write it up on your side, nine ten and a hundred days you will eat. Your meat, which you will eat, weighs twenty shekels a day from time to time. The difficult task is entrusted to the Prophet, who must represent those being punished, and by what he is commanded to do, let the people know that there will be famine in Jerusalem. Therefore, he was ordered to prepare bread not from wheat alone, but from millet, spelt and beans. And such food is a sign of impoverishment. And the weight itself also means disadvantage. For it is said: “You will eat” once a day twenty shekels, which is not more than three ounces, as those who have examined these scales and measures accurately claim. Ezek.4:11. And you will drink water by measure, and you will drink a sixth of it from time to time. And this also makes it possible to see to a great extent the poverty produced by the siege. And the Jews had a “in” measure, the sixth part of which, according to the translation of the Syriac interpreter, contained half a xest. And the Prophet was commanded to drink this measure to signify their future poverty of necessities due to the siege. Ezek.4:12. And I took away the unleavened barley bread, in the line I hid the blood of men before their eyes, that is, bake bread from these all kinds of seeds, as barley bread is usually prepared, and instead of firewood when baking, let human droppings serve as a sign of their future desecrations from the pagans. Why does God add: Ezek.4:13. Thus shall the children of Israel eat their unclean bread among the nations, and perhaps I will scatter it. For, as captives and living among foreign peoples, it was necessary for them to live not according to the law and encounter many cases of violation of it, due to close relations with foreigners. Ezek.4:14. And he said: “Nevertheless, O Lord God of Israel, behold, my soul has not been defiled by uncleanness, nor have I eaten carrion or beast-eating food from my birth even to this day; below, all meat has come into my mouth, vile and filthy.” Forced by this, the Prophet reveals the strict observance of the law in his life, begging the philanthropic Master to cancel the command with another commandment; and he immediately achieved this, because he who is good and conveniently bows to the petitions of those praying, as he undoubtedly bowed then, commanded the Prophet to use ox dung instead of firewood when baking bread. To this he adds: Ezek.4:16–17. Son of man, behold, I will wipe out the grain in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and in poverty, and they will drink water by weight and in poverty, for the poor will be bread and water: and the man and his brother will perish, and perish in their iniquities. By this baking of bread two things are signified: by the weight of it - famine in Jerusalem, and by the uncleanness of preparation - staying among lawless nations. But justice lies in this punishment; for God says: “they will wear out in their iniquities,” that is, they will suffer punishment because they did not stop sinning.