Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He represents vividly the imminent siege, famine, and distress of Jerusalem, which afterwards occurred in the sixth year, namely in the eleventh year of Zedekiah. Therefore first, he is commanded to depict on a brick the city and around it the siege-works and camps of the Chaldeans besieging it, and to place an iron griddle, like a wall, between himself and the city. Second, in verse 4, he is commanded to lie on his left side for 390 days for the same number of years of the iniquity of Israel, and 40 days on his right side for the same number of years of the iniquity of Judah. His daily food and drink are prescribed, namely bread weighing twenty staters, and water a sixth part of a hin. Third, in verse 12, he is commanded to bake his bread with human dung; but by entreating he obtains permission to substitute cow dung for human dung. By all these things he portends the famine, filth, and distress that the Jews besieged by the Chaldeans in Jerusalem would suffer.
Morally, learn here how base and meager are the cities that appear magnificent to worldly people, seeing that they can be depicted on a cheap and small brick. Truly Seneca said: 'A point, and even less than a point, is what we cultivate.' For, as Boethius says in Book II of his Consolation, the whole earth is nothing but a point of a point. Therefore Socrates led Alcibiades, who was puffed up with his wealth and estates, to a certain place where a cosmographic chart was hanging that encompassed the circuit of the earth; and he told Alcibiades to find Attica on it. When he found it, he told him to look for his own estates as well. When Alcibiades said they were nowhere depicted, Socrates said: 'Why then do you take pride in things that exist around no part of the earth?' So Aelian, Book III.
Vulgate Text: Ezekiel 4:1-17
1. And you, son of man, take a brick and place it before you, and draw upon it the city of Jerusalem. 2. And you shall set up a siege against it, and build siege-works, and heap up a mound, and set camps against it, and place battering rams around it. 3. And you, take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; and you shall set your face firmly against it, and it shall be under siege, and you shall besiege it: it is a sign for the house of Israel. 4. And you shall lie on your left side, and you shall place the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, for the number of days that you shall lie upon it, and you shall bear their iniquity. 5. For I have assigned to you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of days, three hundred and ninety days; and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6. And when you have completed these, you shall lie on your right side a second time; and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah for forty days — a day for a year, a day, I say, for a year I have assigned to you. 7. And you shall turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and your arm shall be outstretched; and you shall prophesy against it. 8. Behold, I have bound you with chains; and you shall not turn from one side to the other, until you have completed the days of your siege. 9. And you, take wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and vetch; and put them in one vessel, and make bread for yourself for the number of days that you shall lie on your side: for three hundred and ninety days you shall eat it. 10. And your food that you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty staters per day; from time to time you shall eat it. 11. And you shall drink water by measure, a sixth part of a hin; from time to time you shall drink it. 12. And you shall eat it like barley bread baked under ashes; and you shall cover it with human dung in their sight.
13. And the Lord said: 'Thus shall the children of Israel eat their polluted bread among the nations to which I shall cast them out.' 14. And I said: 'Ah, ah, ah, Lord God, behold my soul has not been polluted; and I have not eaten anything that died of itself or was torn by beasts from my infancy until now, and no unclean flesh has entered my mouth.' 15. And He said to me: 'Behold, I have given you cow dung in place of human dung, and you shall make your bread with it.' 16. And He said to me: 'Son of man, behold I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in anguish: 17. so that, when bread and water fail, each one shall fall beside his brother, and they shall waste away in their iniquities.'
Verse 1: A Brick
1. A BRICK — On which you would draw with an iron stylus the city of Jerusalem, and around it the siege, that is, the camps and machines of the besieging Chaldeans. For houses and cities are made of bricks. Moreover, a brick was better suited for drawing than stone. So R. David and Maldonatus.
Symbolically, Theodoret says: The brick signifies the weakness of the inhabitants, who did not build their house upon rock but upon sand; and Origen says: Bricks are uneducated souls. Lyranus and others note that the brick is taken here as raw, not yet fired and hardened by fire; for otherwise the Prophet could not have drawn on it the city and its siege. Therefore Jerusalem under siege is the soul placed in sin, against which all the fortifications of divine justice are directed. But all these things are described on a brick that is not fired but raw, which is easily dissolved by water; so that we may understand that all the fortifications of divine wrath arrayed against sinners can be dissolved by tears of repentance, and thus the whole accusation of the devil can be abolished. Again St. Gregory, Book XXVI of the Moralia, chapter 5: 'Holy preachers set up a siege around the brick on which the city of Jerusalem was drawn, when they demonstrate to the earthly mind — but one already seeking the heavenly fatherland — how great an adversity of vices assails it in the time of this life.'
The same St. Gregory more extensively here in Homily 12: 'Take a brick for yourself, that is, the earthly heart of your neighbor. Place it before you, so that you may guard his life and understanding with attentive mind. And draw upon it the city of Jerusalem, so that you may make known to him what the heavenly joys of the vision of peace are, etc. And you shall set up a siege against it. For in order that the soul may be able to reach those eternal joys of peace, it must without doubt endure here many struggles of tribulations and temptations; hence preachers set a siege against the soul to be instructed, when by forewarning they indicate in what ways vices oppose themselves to virtues: how lust strikes chastity; how anger disturbs tranquility of soul; how much foolish mirth dissolves the vigor of the mind; how talkativeness destroys the fortification of the heart; how envy kills charity; how pride undermines the citadel of humility, etc. And you shall set camps against it, to show how evil spirits tempt the soul not from one vice alone but from combined vices simultaneously.'
To this belongs that saying of St. Jerome to Heliodorus: 'You err, brother, you err if you think a Christian ever does not suffer persecution. You are most attacked when you do not know you are being attacked. That tranquility is a tempest. For the life of man upon earth is a warfare,' as St. Job says, chapter 7. Let the maxim of St. Cyprian encourage us: 'He conquers once who suffers immediately. But he who, remaining always in sufferings, is pressed together with pain and is not conquered, is crowned daily.' For daily he undergoes a slow and prolonged martyrdom. So he himself, Book II, Epistle 4.
In inscribing a picture of the siege of Jerusalem on a brick, he follows the custom of that time and region. Epigenes records that among the Babylonians observations of the stars covering 420 years were inscribed on baked bricks, as Pliny reports, Natural History, Book VII, section 57. And in that very region where the Babylonian city is believed to have been situated, in our own age a great quantity of bricks has been dug out of the earth, inscribed with writing consisting of cuneiform characters; on which see Friedrich Munter, Essay on the Cuneiform Inscriptions at Persepolis, p. 130 ff. Nor does this custom seem to have entirely fallen out of use in Jerome's time, since he himself says: 'For the brick which in Greek is called by the feminine noun ἡ πλίνθος, Symmachus translated more clearly as πλινθίον, which we can call a small brick or tablet. In whose dust geometers are accustomed to draw γραμμάς, that is, lines and rays.' From his words one may conclude that it was not necessary for the Prophet to have used, as some hold, a raw brick not yet fired and hardened.
that the city would be destroyed, and the citizens most grievously tortured — he bears the person both of God and of the Chaldeans besieging the city.
Tropologically, St. Gregory, Homily 12: 'The iron griddle,' he says, 'is the spiritual frying of zeal, in which the preacher burns with love of virtues against the vices of the people.' Such was Paul, saying: 'Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire?' 'There is no such sacrifice to God as zeal for souls,' says St. Gregory in the same place.
Better is St. Ambrose on Psalm 38, on that verse 'You made his soul waste away like a spider': 'They are cast,' he says, 'into the frying-pan of sins, so that a certain flesh of sin may melt away, which had coated over the vigor of the soul and mind, and had, as if by some juice, infused the soul with certain allurements of desires. Therefore certain frying-pans await us; for this reason let us here crush our heart, that it may become refined and put off all hardness and fatness of carnal grease.'
AND YOU SHALL HEAP UP A MOUND — a heap of piled-up earth, also a mass of stones, turf, and wood, so as to raise a rampart from which, as from a mountain, catapults may be discharged against the walls and citizens; or rather, 'a mound' by which the Chaldeans may protect themselves from the missiles of the Jews. For enemies about to besiege a city are accustomed to push mounds before them and advance them, so that they may approach the walls unharmed. So Maldonatus.
YOU SHALL SET — that is, you shall depict. For Ezekiel did not do all these things in reality but painted them on the brick.
BATTERING RAMS — So called is the beam which, hanging from ropes and pushed back by the besiegers, with iron projecting at the front like a horn, struck and demolished walls and gates with great force like a ram. Pliny, Book VII, chapter 56, attributes this machine to Epeus, who built the Trojan horse (for he says this was a battering ram), by which Troy was captured. See Josephus, Book III of the Jewish War, chapter 9. The Chaldean version translates 'battering rams' as 'commanders.' For just as rams lead the flock, so commanders lead the army.
Verse 3: Take an Iron Griddle
3. TAKE AN IRON GRIDDLE. — From this it seems that Ezekiel took an actual griddle, and did not paint it on the brick.
A GRIDDLE — in which meats, fish, and eggs are fried, and if it is large enough, people; as in it Antiochus fried the Maccabees, 2 Maccabees 7:5. Hence the Syriac translates 'a griddle of iron, from iron'; the Arabic Antiochene, 'an iron pan.'
One asks, of what thing is this griddle a symbol? Maldonatus answers that it signifies the city of Jerusalem, because a griddle is surrounded by iron as it were; and the iron signifies the fortification of the city, which seemed to be impregnable as if it had iron walls; yet it would be conquered by the wrath of God, which is stronger than iron. But against this stands the fact that the Prophet is commanded to place this griddle between himself and the city; therefore it was not the city itself, but something between the city and the Prophet. Note therefore:
First, the Prophet, bearing the person of God, placed the iron griddle between himself and the brick on which he had drawn Jerusalem, to signify that an iron wall, as it were, was interposed between himself and the citizens — that is, that God and God's decree and sentence pronounced against them were inexorable, and that God would not hear the prayers and complaints of the citizens, nor be moved by mercy. So Theodoret, Polychronius, St. Jerome, Vatablus, and others. The griddle, therefore, represents the atrocious crimes which block the way to God's mercy like rocks (Isaiah 59:2), or like clouds (Lamentations 3:44) — namely, the hearts of the Jews, says R. David, harder than iron and uglier than soot, which make God, who by nature is gentle, merciful, and sweet, hard and iron-like, and wring from Him an iron decree of harsh punishment and vengeance.
Second, this griddle signifies that the city would be burned with fire, and the citizens would be most severely tortured and, as it were, fried. The same is signified by the boiling pot in Jeremiah chapter 1.
YOU SHALL SET YOUR FACE FIRMLY — both against the griddle and against the city, that is: With a severe and implacable countenance, as if inexorable, you shall look upon the city and the griddle; like a judge who, when he is immovable from the sentence pronounced, gazes upon it and the accused with determined eyes. Otherwise Polychronius and Kimchi interpret: you shall turn your indignant and threatening face away from the city to the left.
IT IS A SIGN FOR THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL — that is, this figure and drawing of Jerusalem besieged signifies that Jerusalem will truly be so besieged shortly. He calls the Jews 'Israelites' because, with the ten tribes already carried off to Assyria, the entire progeny of Israel, that is of Jacob, remaining in the fatherland consisted of Judah and the Jews, about which more shortly.
Verse 4: You Shall Lie
4. YOU SHALL LIE — In Hebrew שכב (shakab), 'lie down, recline.' The Prophet therefore did not sleep for 390 days; but he lay awake, as one besieging, or rather watching the siege of the city. So commonly we are said to sleep all night, that is, to lie in bed, even though many do not properly sleep for many hours but stay awake, whether because of illness, or worries, or prayer.
ON YOUR LEFT SIDE — Fittingly he places Israel on the left, because indeed Samaria, that is the ten tribes, dwelt to the left with respect to Judah, say Polychronius and R. Solomon. Second, Maldonatus says: Judah is placed on the right because it was more distinguished and had the priesthood and the kingdom; Israel on the left because it was of lower rank and because it was originally subject to Judah.
YOU SHALL PLACE THE INIQUITIES — So that by lying thus for 390 days, you may bear, or rather by bearing represent, the punishment due to the iniquities of the Israelites. For 'iniquity' is used metonymically for the punishment of iniquity.
AND YOU SHALL BEAR — you shall sustain, you shall bear the punishments due to their sins, and at the same time you shall supplicate God to obtain pardon for them.
Verse 5: The Years of Their Iniquity According to the Number of Days
5. THE YEARS OF THEIR INIQUITY, ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF DAYS — that is: For the 390 years of the iniquity of the Israelites, I give you the punishment of lying down for 390 days. And for the 40 years of sins of Judah, you shall lie on the right side for the same number of days, 40.
Origen notes that some read 150 days in the Septuagint version, others 190, others 350. But the true reading is 390. So the Hebrew, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, St. Jerome, and others. Here note God's clemency, which gives a day of punishment for a year of sins. He therefore punishes far less than what is deserved. For the punishment of God bears to the fault the same proportion as one day to 365 days; for that is how many days a year has.
Verse 7: You Shall Turn Your Face Toward the Siege of Jerusalem
7. YOU SHALL TURN YOUR FACE TOWARD THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM — that is: In this reclining of yours, you shall gaze fixedly at the brick on which you drew the siege of Jerusalem (so the Hebrew), to signify that all these wondrous things you do are a portent of the most severe siege of Jerusalem, by which it shall be captured and destroyed.
YOUR ARM SHALL BE OUTSTRETCHED — So the Roman edition; that is, as the Hebrew has it, bared, extended; for to extend the arm is to bare it. For the tunics of ancient men, thrown over the head and girded with a belt, scarcely covered the upper arms. Hence Publius Africanus reproached Publius Sulpicius Gallus for wearing tunics with sleeves, like women, says Gellius, Book VII, chapter 17. Especially soldiers of old used to fight with bared arms, which Africans and Indians still do. The meaning is: You shall show your arm bared, as if you wished to fight fiercely and invade the city.
YOU SHALL PROPHESY — not with words, for he was mute, as is clear from chapter 3:26, but with these actions; by yourself, that is, and by your gesture, you shall represent God attacking Jerusalem through the Chaldeans. So Prado.
Verse 8: Behold I Have Bound You with Chains
8. BEHOLD, I HAVE BOUND YOU WITH CHAINS — I have caused your relatives and friends to bind you as if you were insane; but endure patiently both their chains and My commands, so that you do not turn to the other side, but complete the days of your siege, namely 390 and another 40, by which you represent the siege of Jerusalem. So Vatablus, Prado, and others, and this is gathered from chapter 3:25. Otherwise Maldonatus thinks that Ezekiel was bound by God so that he could not turn from one side to the other, which exposition is probable. Furthermore, here the Prophet bears the person of the city, and of the citizens who would soon be besieged and bound.
Verse 9: And You Take for Yourself
9. AND YOU TAKE FOR YOURSELF, etc., VETCH — Vetch is food for horses and cattle. St. Jerome in his Commentary translates it as 'oats'; Symmachus and Aquila as ζεας, that is, spelt. The Prophet is commanded here to mix wheat, barley, millet, beans, vetch, etc., to make from them 390 cheap and barely adequate loaves of bread, one for each of those days, to signify that the famine of the besieged city would be so great that the citizens would not seek delicacies but bread, even bread made from lentils and vetch. Under the 390, understand equally another 40, for the 40 days during which he had to lie on his right side; for he could not fast through those same number of days.
Verse 10: By Weight
10. BY WEIGHT — That is, not as much as you want and desire, but by a fixed weight, as is customary in the great famine of a besieged city. Moreover, the weight prescribed for him is 'twenty staters'; in Hebrew, twenty shekels. A shekel, according to St. Jerome and Josephus, weighed 4 drachmas; 8 drachmas make one ounce. Twenty staters therefore are 10 ounces, which do not yet make a pound (for a pound contains 12 ounces) of bread, on which therefore the soul is dragged through the day rather than sustained. It is therefore surprising that Polychronius and Theodoret equate 20 staters with three ounces. Others equate 20 staters with 5 ounces, for they think the stater here is taken not as whole but as halved, which was a quarter of an ounce. And perhaps this is what Theodoret and Polychronius meant, if they wrote 5 in cipher, meaning five, which copyists corrupted by writing 3, meaning three; for the slip from 5 to 3 is easy. For far too little is given by 20 staters if only three ounces are assigned to them; somewhat more with five, for these contain forty drachmas.
FROM TIME TO TIME YOU SHALL EAT IT — namely, from evening to evening, says St. Jerome; or, as Vatablus says, from noon to noon. Otherwise Apollinaris: from year to year, that is, Every day of the whole year you shall eat bread of ten ounces.
IN THEIR SIGHT — so that those watching might ask the reason for so strange a thing, and learn of the famine and disaster threatening the city and themselves. From this it is clear that these things were not done through an imaginary vision, as Vatablus and some others would have it, but in reality. About which more shortly.
Verse 11: And Water by Measure
11. AND WATER BY MEASURE — That is, not as much as you wish, but only a sixth part of a hin, namely two Italian sextarii. Thus a very small drink is given to the Prophet, just enough to prevent death, to signify the thirst that the besieged city would suffer. See what I said about measures at the end of the Pentateuch.
Verse 12: You Shall Eat It Like Barley Bread Baked Under Ashes
12. YOU SHALL EAT IT LIKE BARLEY BREAD BAKED UNDER ASHES — that is: The loaves I have commanded you to eat, you shall not bake in an oven, as more respectable people bake; but under ashes, like rustic barley loaves, to signify that the famine will be so great that people will not wait for bread to be baked in an oven, but will toast them under ashes so as to devour them immediately. Apollinaris adds that this signifies a scarcity of wood, so that they cannot light an oven with it, but are forced to use coals and ashes for baking bread.
YOU SHALL COVER IT WITH HUMAN DUNG — namely, while you bake it, as the Hebrew has it, under ashes of human dung. This signifies a scarcity of wood, and since even dried cow dung (with which rustics make fire when they lack wood) is lacking, it will be necessary to make fire with dried human dung to bake bread, as rustics use turf. He does not therefore mean that dung should be smeared on the bread to be eaten with it, as the common people suppose; but only that the bread should be baked with it. For this is the Hebrew עוג (ug); hence עוגות (uggot) are called loaves baked under coals and ashes. Hence also in verse 15 it says: 'You shall make (that is, bake) your bread with it,' cow dung; in Hebrew, 'upon it'; just as cakes are baked upon coals. So R. David, Marinus, Mercerus, Forster, Pagninus in his Lexicons, Pintus, Lyranus, Vatablus, Maldonatus, Prado, and others here. Hence the Arabic Antiochene translates: 'You shall roast it with human dung'; the Arabic Alexandrine: 'You shall eat a cake kneaded upon human dung'; the Syriac: 'You shall eat what is roasted upon human dung.' By this he signifies that the Jews, both in the besieged city and in Babylon, would eat horrible and unclean bread: for the Prophet portends this by this so unusual and abominable baking of bread.
Verse 13: Their Polluted Bread
13. THEIR POLLUTED BREAD — Because bread made from various seeds seemed to be unclean under the old law, as is expressly stated about a field in Leviticus 19:19. But nothing is decreed there about bread; otherwise Ezekiel would have cited this law to God, excusing himself from this food. The bread is therefore called polluted because of the foulness and stench of human dung; hence the dung itself was also abominable by the law, Deuteronomy 23:12. It signifies, therefore, that because of famine during the siege they will have to eat such filthy bread as a person would otherwise abominate.
Note: Because the Jews worshipped idols, which in Scripture are called dung and filth, out of contempt and vileness, hence they are fittingly punished by having to swallow their own filth. So also tropologically, gluttons, drunkards, and the libidinous are forced to digest their debauchery and filth for a long time.
I WILL DRIVE — In Hebrew, 'I will impel,' namely, I will drive them like a flock into the midst of Jerusalem to be slaughtered by the Chaldean nations. He is therefore not speaking of the deportation to Babylon, as some would have it, but of the siege and captivity of Jerusalem, as is clear from what precedes and follows. So Prado.
Verse 14: Ah Ah Ah
14. AH, AH, AH — In Hebrew אהה (ahah); if you substitute a vowel for each consonant, it is 'a, ha, ha,' as if a threefold detestation of the polluted and legally forbidden food. It is an interjection of one who grieves, recoils, and deprecates. Hence Symmachus and the Septuagint translate 'by no means'; Theodotion, 'O Lord God!' At these commands of God, Ezekiel is struck with horror; because a man who loves cleanness and propriety naturally shudders at filth and dung. Therefore a monster of nature and prodigy of filth was the Emperor Constantine the Iconoclast, who delighted in such filth and its stench, and was hence surnamed Copronymus, that is, 'Dung-named,' because when he was being baptized he defecated and polluted the baptismal font — a sign that he would attempt to pollute the Church with his heresy and the most pure Virgin Mother of God with his blasphemies. He was also surnamed Caballinus, because he took pleasure in the dung and urine of horses. So Baronius from Theophanes, volume IX, year of Christ 775. Hear Theosterictus in Nicetas: 'He delighted so greatly,' he says, 'in filth and the foul smell of every most impure thing, that he would smear himself with the dung of brute animals, and would order those who were with him to do the same; those whom he loved he received kindly for this reason, because he always delighted in foul-smelling things.' Let our Iconoclasts and enemies of the saints glory in such filthy forebears.
THAT WHICH DIED OF ITSELF — That is, 'that which loses its life without the shedding of blood and in which the soul dies,' says St. Jerome — as what dies of its own accord, or is drowned in water, or strangled.
'It should also be noted,' says St. Jerome, 'that according to the number of days of the left side, three hundred and ninety loaves baked under ashes are commanded to be made and eaten one per day, and about the bread for the 40 days of the right side nothing at all is said — so that Sacred Scripture secretly suggests that the punishment of a sinful people is not the same if it nevertheless has knowledge of God (that is, the kingdom of Judah), and of one that has entirely departed from the religion of the true God (the kingdom of Israel).'
AND TORN BY BEASTS — Both are forbidden as unclean by the law in Leviticus 11:11 and 24, etc. He argues from the greater to the lesser, as if to say: If I have never eaten unclean flesh, how shall I eat bread baked with human dung?
Note: God heard him, because a merciful Father does not allow His own to be afflicted too long in prayer, nor to afflict themselves with penances without hearing them. So He did for the afflicted Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and others. Therefore instead of human dung, He grants him cow dung, which is less abominable. So I have seen in Belgium experienced men who would cure a sick person by giving him horse dung in food or drink.
Verse 16: The Staff of Bread
16. THE STAFF OF BREAD — The Hebrew מטה (matteh) means the substance, the sustenance of bread; Aquila, Symmachus, and the Septuagint translate it as 'the support of bread'; the Chaldean as 'the prop of bread.' The meaning is not: I will take away from bread its power of nourishing and sustaining, as some would have it; but rather: I will take away the nourishing bread itself, I will take away crops and grain, I will bring barrenness and scarcity of provisions. For by a Hebraism, 'the sustenance of bread' means 'sustaining bread.' So allegorically, on account of heresy God takes away the Eucharistic bread, which sustains the soul.
Verse 17: To His Brother
17. TO HIS BROTHER — beside his brother; when he goes to him to ask and beg for bread, he shall collapse from hunger.
THEY SHALL WASTE AWAY — they shall grow thin from famine, and from the pestilence and plague arising therefrom they shall rot, and melt away into decay and pestilential sores, wasting and wasting away.
IN THEIR INIQUITIES — that is, on account of their iniquities.
THE FIRST QUESTION IS — what are these 390 years of iniquity of Israel and 40 of Judah, spoken of in verses 5 and 6? Some take 'iniquity' properly as guilt, namely idolatry; others take it metonymically as punishment, so that the years of iniquity are years of captivity.
First, Polychronius reads 450 instead of 390, and counts them from the sixth year of Hezekiah, when Hoshea the last king of Israel was captured and led into Assyria, up to the last year of Zedekiah, when he himself, the king of Judah, was captured. But only 433 years elapsed here. Theodoret also counts 150 from the fifth year of the deportation of Jehoiachin, when Ezekiel began to prophesy, up to the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, when the temple was completed and the city of Jerusalem was enclosed with walls; the 40 years of Judah he counts from the same fifth year of Jehoiachin up to the second year of Cyrus, who ended the Babylonian captivity of the Jews. But none of this applies to Israel, that is, to the ten tribes, but only to Judah. Add that he falsely reads 150 for 390, to say nothing of other errors.
Second, the Jews, as St. Jerome attests, join 40 with 390 to make 430, which they count from the second year of Vespasian, who destroyed Jerusalem, claiming that after 430 years it would be restored and rebuilt for them. Just as after 430 years they were freed from Egyptian slavery, Exodus 12:40. But it is now clear that for more than fifteen hundred years the Jews have been in exile from Jerusalem, and scattered among the nations they miserably serve everywhere.
Third, St. Jerome and from him Maldonatus count 390 years of the iniquity, that is captivity, of Israel from the first captivity of the ten tribes, when Tiglath-Pileser, under Pekah king of Israel, transported the Israelites to Assyria, or rather when Pul the Assyrian, 2 Kings 15:19, came to the land of Israel, to whom Menahem king of Israel was paying tribute of a thousand talents of silver; and they end these at the 28th year of Artaxerxes Mnemon (that is, 'the Rememberer,' for he was of excellent memory), who succeeded Darius Nothus and was the husband of Esther, who at the prayers of Esther freed all the Jews from death. The 40 years they count from the first year of Jeconiah, who surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar, up to the first year of Cyrus. But both of these pertain more to the Jews captive in Babylon and Persia, and to being freed not from captivity but from death, than to Israel, that is the ten tribes. For the captivity of Judah in Babylon was ended by Cyrus 428 years before Artaxerxes Mnemon. Again, the captivity of the ten tribes was not ended under Mnemon, but still continues; indeed Mnemon ended no captivity, but only freed the Jews from the death to which Haman had destined them. Finally, the computation of years does not add up to 390 years. For from Pul to the 28th year of Mnemon, only 383 years at most elapsed. Add that it is far more correct that these years are not of captivity but of iniquity properly so called, for this is what the Prophet bears and atones for.
Fourth, R. Solomon and Kimchi count the 390 years from the beginning of the idolatry of the kingdom of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin, up to the 9th year of Hoshea, when the kingdom of Israel was overthrown — which is 241 years. To these they add 149 years, which they borrow from the time of the Judges, that is from the 4th year of Abimelech to the last year of Eli. The 40 years of Judah they count also by intercalation, namely 16 of Manasseh during which he sinned, 2 of Amon, and 22 of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. But they intercalate these years of Israel and Judah gratuitously, and contrary to the order of chronology and the custom of Scripture. For before Abimelech also the Jews as well as the Israelites worshipped Baal, and before Manasseh, Ahaz as well as Solomon also worshipped idols.
Fifth, others count 390 years from the 23rd year of Eli to the last year of Hoshea. But these also err in their reckoning. And even if we grant they do not err, what has this to do with the matter? For after Eli, David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah did not worship idols nor sin; how then can these years be years of iniquity of Israel?
Sixth, others by Israel understand the two tribes and the cities of Judah, in which Jews and Israelites were intermingled, especially after the flight and captivity of the ten tribes, in which idolatry flourished from the 4th year of Rehoboam to the last year of Zedekiah, for 390 years; by Judah they understand the city of Jerusalem, in which the killing of Christ and of Christians continued for about 40 years, namely from the 18th year of Tiberius to the 2nd of Vespasian, who destroyed it. Both of these are true, but the latter is allegorical; for literally Ezekiel speaks of sins committed in his own time, and of the present siege made by Nebuchadnezzar, not by Vespasian.
In response I say first: All these things signify the siege of Jerusalem, in which the commonwealth of the Jews — that is, both Israel or the ten tribes, and Judah — was completely overthrown and devastated. That this is so is clear, first, because Ezekiel and Jeremiah prophesy to the Jews alone and predict to them the destruction of Judea and Jerusalem. Second, because the ten tribes had long since, in the 6th year of Hezekiah, been cut off and carried away to Assyria, and never returned from there; therefore by Israel we should understand not those ten tribes, but the two tribes, namely Judah and Benjamin, and whichever of the ten tribes were intermingled with Judah. Third, this is clear from the beginning of the chapter, which is like the title of the entire prophecy narrated in this and the following chapter. For it reads thus: 'And you, son of man, take a brick and place it before you, and draw upon it the city of Jerusalem, and set up a siege against it,' etc. All these things therefore refer to Jerusalem and its siege and destruction. Hence he immediately adds in verse 3: 'It is a sign for the house of Israel,' meaning: This depiction of the siege of Jerusalem on a brick is a sign and portends that this siege of the Israelites — that is, the Jews — will soon happen in reality; for the sign given to the Prophets is of a future event, not a past one. Fourth, because the kingdom of Israel, that is of the ten tribes, did not last 390 years, but only 256; for that many elapsed from the first year of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, who was the first king of the ten tribes, to the 6th year of Hezekiah, when this kingdom was overthrown by the Assyrians, as is clear from 2 Kings 18:10. Therefore these 390 years of the iniquity of Israel also encompass the iniquities of the kingdom of Judah.
I say second: The Prophet here bears the person both of the besieged nation — when, chained, he lies down for 390 days eating bread baked under ashes, by which he signifies that the citizens will be confined in the city and tortured by famine — and of the besieging nation, when he extends his arm against the city and sets the griddle against it like a shield.
I say third: The 390 days portend the siege of the city, while the 40 days portend the destruction of the city (hence for the last 40 it is not specified that he prepare bread, because once the city was captured there was not such great famine); for that the city was besieged for 390 days is clear by counting the days from the beginning of the siege to the end. For, as is clear from 2 Kings 25, Nebuchadnezzar began to besiege the city in the 9th year of Zedekiah, on the 10th day of the tenth month, and captured it in the 11th year, on the 9th day of the fourth month. Now 390 days make twelve months and 23 days, during which Jerusalem was closely besieged. Ezekiel therefore omits some months of respite for Jerusalem, because when the Jews repented and freed their slaves according to the law, the Chaldeans, abandoning Jerusalem, went to meet the Egyptians who were coming to aid the Jews; but when the Jews returned to their crimes and recalled their slaves, the Chaldeans returned to the siege of Jerusalem until they captured it, as is clear from Jeremiah chapter 34. So Theodoret, Vatablus, and others in the same place. Furthermore, that Jerusalem was destroyed and devastated over 40 days is clear because, as stated in 2 Kings 25:8 and Jeremiah 52:6, on the ninth day of the fourth month the city was captured; on the seventh day of the fifth month the temple was burned; therefore there were 30 intermediate days, to which add 10 days that the victorious Chaldean easily spent in the destruction of so many houses and walls, and you will have the forty we are looking for.
Finally, that the 390 days of Ezekiel's lying on his left side portend the same number of days of the siege of Jerusalem is clear from verse 8, where it says: 'You shall not turn from your (left) side (on which I first commanded you to lie for 390 days in verse 4) to the other side (the right, on which I later commanded you to lie for 40 days in verse 6), until you complete the days of your siege' (for he was commanded to lie on this left side for that many days. And concerning the same, assigning him food, he adds): 'And you take wheat and barley, etc., and make bread for yourself for the number of days you shall lie on your side: for three hundred and ninety days you shall eat it.' From which it is clear that during the 390 days in which Ezekiel lay on his left side, he portended and represented the 390 days of the siege of Jerusalem.
I say fourth: To lie on the left side is uncomfortable and anxious, because then the heart, which inclines to the left side, is heated and suffocated by the liver above it. Hence this lying is a symbol of an anxious spirit, frequently wakened by imminent danger: this was the posture of the Chaldeans, anxiously besieging the city of Jerusalem. To lie on the right side, however, makes sleep sweet and pleasant, like that of one freed from care. This lying, therefore, is a sign of victory, by which the Chaldeans, having captured the city, slept deeply from joy, and the Jews, with their cause lost, slept deeply from grief.
I say fifth: 'Iniquity' here signifies the punishment of iniquity, for he adds: 'You shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel,' meaning: For so many days, weighed down by chains, you shall sustain the affliction due to the iniquities of Israel, and by your endurance you shall represent the affliction that they themselves will bear during the same number of days of siege.
I say sixth: When He says 'a day,' understand 'of punishment,' 'for a year' of past guilt 'I have given to you.' These are therefore years of past iniquities of Israel, not of punishment to be inflicted on them; for otherwise He would have had to say: 'A year for a day I have given to you,' since you bear the person of the people; but on the contrary He says: 'A day for a year I have given to you,' meaning: I have given you as many days of hunger and affliction as years the Israelites sinned with impunity.
I say seventh: By Israel he takes both the Jews and the Israelites, that is, both the two and the ten tribes, because both were intermingled in Judea, especially after the ten tribes had for the most part been carried off to Assyria. Both are therefore called Israel here rather than Judah, because in Israel the iniquity that is punished here — namely, idolatry — began, flourished, and persisted, and from Israel it flowed to Judah. By the house of Judah, however, he takes the royal house, family, and kingdom that was in the line of David and Judah, and through it he indicates Manasseh, whose iniquity and idolatry for 40 years was so great that, as Scripture says (2 Kings 21:16), he filled Jerusalem with the blood of Prophets up to the brim, so that God on account of it destined his line and city for certain destruction and destroyed it irremissibly and inexorably (2 Kings 23:26).
Furthermore, that the crimes of Manasseh lasted for 40 years (not 22, as the Hebrews in Seder Olam would have it) is gathered from the fact that, according to Polychronius, the Septuagint at 2 Kings 21:18, according to some codices, says that Amon the son of Manasseh reigned 12 years; because after his father he reigned alone only 2 years, as the Hebrew and Latin have it at 2 Kings 21:18; but with his father captive in Babylon, he reigned 10 years; and his father, returning from captivity, did not long survive, but seems to have lived and reigned about 5 years. Now subtract these last 5 years of reign and the 10 of his captivity from the 55 years during which Manasseh is said to have reigned in total, and you will have 40 years of his sins and wicked reign. Hence Vatablus says: 'For forty years Israel sinned most grievously in the time of Manasseh, who remained in good conduct for only fifteen years and sinned for forty.'
The 390 years of the iniquity of Israel therefore begin from the first year of Rehoboam, king of Judah, and Jeroboam, king of Israel, who as soon as he was made king made idols, namely golden calves, which the Israelites worshipped that same year, and to which and to the Baals the Jews also drifted after three years under Rehoboam. These 390 years end in the last year of Zedekiah, when the city was destroyed. For chronologists generally agree that 390 years elapsed between the first year of Jeroboam and the last year of Zedekiah. To these 390 years of iniquity, therefore, there succeeded as punishment 390 days of the siege of the city, which the Prophet represents by his lying on the left side for 390 days. And to the 40 years of sins of the house of Judah, that is, of Manasseh, there succeed 40 days of the destruction and devastation of the city, which the Prophet represents by lying on the right side for 40 days. Nor is it surprising that the 40 years of Manasseh are included in the 390 and consequently counted twice, because those 40 years were more notable in wickedness, and therefore as it were doubled. For these were the sole cause of the irrevocable sentence of God to destroy Jerusalem. The meaning therefore is: For the earlier sins committed by the Jews over 390 years, the siege of Jerusalem is owed; but for the later sins of Manasseh, committed over 40 years, the certain destruction and complete devastation of the city has been decreed. So Hieronymus Prado and Vatablus.
Some not implausibly count these 40 years of the crimes of the house of Judah from the 13th year of Josiah to the 11th and last year of Zedekiah; for these properly belonged to Judah, since Israel, that is the ten tribes, had already been carried away. For then the Jews were more wicked than usual, so much so that they mocked and tortured Jeremiah and other heralds proclaiming God's wrath. Our Pineda approaches this opinion, who in Book VII of his work On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter 9, holds that these 390 years begin from the 27th year of Solomon, when he himself fell into idolatry; for from there to the last year of Jehoiakim (where he holds these years end) he counts 390 years. For although after Jehoiakim Zedekiah reigned, under whom Jerusalem was destroyed, nevertheless the beginning of this overthrow and destruction was the earlier captivity under Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin. And for this reason Scripture, narrating the destruction of Jerusalem, mentions Solomon, because he was the origin of the sin, namely idolatry, and consequently of the destruction. This mention is made at 2 Kings 24, where after the catastrophe of Jehoiakim and the captivity of his son Jehoiachin, Scripture adds in verse 13 about Nebuchadnezzar: 'He cut up all the golden vessels that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, according to the word of the Lord.' This opinion offers a fitting and plausible conjecture, especially because Solomon was the first author of the idolatry of Israel, which thereafter continued for 390 years, up to its destruction.
But because Solomon indeed worshipped idols but did not sanction their worship by public edict, much less abolish the worship of the true God in Israel; and because it is uncertain in exactly which year Solomon apostatized and worshipped idols — hence we shall more correctly and certainly begin these years from the schism that Jeroboam made both from Judah and from God, who was the first to raise the banner of idolatry, setting up golden calves in Dan and Bethel and forbidding anyone to go to the Temple in Jerusalem to worship God. Hence this schism is most famous in Scripture, and against it — that is, against the golden calves — the Prophets thunder throughout.
THE SECOND QUESTION IS — whether Ezekiel really lay down, or only in a vision — that is, whether he merely seemed to himself to be lying down for 390 days. St. Jerome, Vatablus, and others answer that it was only an imaginary vision, because nature does not allow a man to lie on one side for so many days without ever turning to the other side. But I respond that he really did lie on his left side for 390 days and on his right for 40 days. This is clear because God really commands this here, for the words of this command simply signify this. Therefore the Prophet, being in all things obedient to God, performed and fulfilled this very thing in action.
Second, because verse 12 says that he did in fact so lie down 'in their sight.' Therefore it was not done through a vision, for only Ezekiel would have seen that, not the eyes of others. So Chrysostom, Book III On the Providence of God, past the middle; Basil, on Isaiah chapter 8; Theodoret, on Hosea chapter 1; Ribera, on Hosea chapter 1, number 47; Prado and others.
To the objection I respond that the Prophet did not always sleep, but lay in this position, now waking, now sleeping. For this is what the Hebrew שכב (shakab) means. Moreover, that this could happen, if not by nature, certainly by a special help of God, no one doubts. I myself saw at Louvain a noble man, a paralytic, who had already lain continuously on his back for sixteen years with admirable patience. Our Prado testifies that he saw a madman who lay on one side for fifteen full years. So Simeon Stylites stood on the same foot for eighty continuous years, with God's grace assisting nature. Indeed Epimenides, whom St. Paul in Titus 1 calls the Cretans' own prophet, is reported by Laertius, Book I, in his Life, and by others, to have slept 57 years in a cave. And if this seems rightly fabulous to Pliny, Book VII, chapter 52, certainly not fabulous is what Gregory of Tours, Nicephorus, and others narrate about the seven holy brothers who slept at Ephesus for nearly two hundred years, and when the persecution ceased and they awoke, they thought they had slept only one night — from which Baronius draws in his Martyrology for July 27 — and the Emperor Theodosius came to Ephesus to see them. Paul the Deacon reports a similar story of seven sleepers in Germany, Book I of the Deeds of the Lombards, chapter 3. For Aristotle rightly teaches, Book IV of the Physics, text 97, that those who sleep do not perceive the time during which they sleep, but join the moment when they begin to sleep to the moment when they awake, because they do not feel the intermediate time, since they perceive no change: 'Just as those,' he says, 'who are fabulously said to sleep among the heroes at Sardis, when they have awakened' — on which passage Simplicius, Commentary 104, writes that when the Sardians were captured by the Greeks, nine heroes, sons of Hercules, were found dead in a cave, but so well preserved with spices that they seemed to be sleeping. Philoponus, and from him Toletus, on the passage of Aristotle just cited, says that those who were ill were brought to these heroes, and they would immediately fall into a deep sleep, so that when they awoke they did not perceive the long duration of their slumber.
You will say: This vision occurred in the fifth year of Zedekiah, in the 4th month, on the 13th day, as is gathered from chapter 1:1 and 2, and from chapter 3:15; but in the 6th year, 6th month, 5th day, as stated in chapter 8, Ezekiel was sitting (not lying, as is said here) at home with the elders of Judah. Now from the 13th day of the 4th month of year 5, to the 5th day of the 6th month of year 6, there are 406 days (for these months of the Hebrews are lunar, and twelve of them make a lunar year, which is eleven days shorter than a solar year); but 390 days joined with another 40 make 430 days; therefore 24 days are lacking here. For subtract 406 from 430, and 24 remain.
Prado responds that that year was intercalary and had 13 months, that is, 30 days more than other years. For every third year the Hebrews intercalated a month, in order to equalize their lunar years with the solar ones. And so the 24 days that are lacking must be supplied from the 30 days of the 13th month.
Morally, learn here how God exercises His illustrious friends and prophets, how hard the things He commands them, how He mortifies them, so that they may be an example and portent to the whole world. The pagans invented something similar to this: that Endymion, a beautiful youth loved by the moon, sleeps perpetually, because the moon had asked Jupiter for this and obtained it. Hence the proverb: 'You sleep the sleep of Endymion,' which Aristotle used in Book X of the Ethics, concluding that neither leisure befits the gods, nor again does any other action seem worthy of them except contemplation. 'Since it is agreed,' he says, 'that the gods are alive, it follows that they also do something. For they must not sleep the sleep of Endymion, as the saying goes.' Hence also Cicero, in Book I of De Finibus, teaches that leisure is most disagreeable to the wise man and to any person, because it is most deeply implanted in us by nature to do something. 'Therefore,' he says, 'even if we thought we would enjoy the most pleasant dreams, we would not wish to be given the sleep of Endymion, and if it should happen, we would consider it equivalent to death.' The same in Tusculan Disputations I: 'And yet,' he says, 'those who make it lighter want it to be most like sleep. As if anyone would want to live ninety years in such a way that, having completed sixty, he would sleep the rest — not even pigs would want that, let alone a man. And Endymion, if we want to hear the fables, fell asleep at some point on Latmus, which is a mountain in Caria, and has not yet, I think, woken up.' If long sleep is like death, and thus a burial of a living person, what will long wakefulness be? What will perpetual lying on one and the same side be, which besides the exhaustion burdens and oppresses the weak side with the whole weight of the body, so that it often wears away the skin and flesh, and leaves a person with only bones?
Again learn here how God teaches and commands His own to become fools in the eyes of the world, that they may be wise for God — to lead and draw God's elect from the worship of the world to the worship of God. For this reason He commanded them things paradoxical and contrary to the common use of life, to teach both them and others simple obedience, as well as neglect of self and contempt of the world.
For thus Ezekiel in this chapter 4 was commanded to eat bread baked with dung, and in chapter 5, by God's command, in the manner of a madman, he cut his shaved beard and hair with a sword, scattered them in the air, and burned them with fire. Indeed, he who obeys God is then at last wise when by His command he acts foolishly. So Isaiah, chapter 20, so great a man and born of royal stock, walked publicly naked in the royal city. So Jeremiah, chapter 27, walked the streets of the city loaded with chains like a fugitive slave and criminal. So Hosea, most chaste, at God's command married a harlot. So a prophet said to his companion, 1 Kings chapter 20:35: 'Strike me,' and when the other refused, he heard: 'A lion shall strike you' — and he was soon killed by a lion; then, wounded by another, he met King Ahab and rebuked him for not having killed the captured Ben-hadad.
So the ancient ascetics and monks exercised their disciples by prescribing certain paradoxical and seemingly foolish things. So St. Anthony wonderfully exercised Paul the Simple with fasts and labors. So the Abbot John commanded his disciple to water a dry stick daily for three years, which consequently at last began to sprout by a miracle. So St. Alexander, a wonderful despiser of himself, from being a philosopher made himself a charcoal-burner, to hide his beauty; from a charcoal-burner he was made a bishop, and from a bishop a martyr. The witness is Gregory of Nyssa in the Life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus. So St. Amma, in Palladius's Lausiac History, chapter 42, feigning herself a fool in the monastery, and mocked and tormented by all as a fool, was at last declared by the judgment of God through St. Pitirion to be the holiest and wisest of all. So Simeon Salus, that is 'the Fool,' is wonderfully celebrated by Evagrius and Leontius in his Life. This holy foolishness was widely taught by word and example by St. Francis, Bl. Juniper, Bl. Jacopone, and similar others.
Indeed even the Apostles, says St. Paul, when he everywhere preaches the cross of Christ: 'to the Jews a scandal, to the Gentiles foolishness.' Hear him, 1 Corinthians 4:9: 'I think that God has exhibited us Apostles as the last of all, as men doomed to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, etc.; we are cursed, and we bless; we suffer persecution, and we endure; we are slandered, and we entreat; we have become as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.' See more in our Rader, in his book On Simple Obedience and Contempt of Self.