Ominous Object Lessons, 1-16

4:1 “And you, son of man, take a brick and set it in front of you. Inscribe a city on it—Jerusalem. 4:2 Lay siege to it! Build siege works against it. Erect a siege ramp against it! Post soldiers outside it and station battering rams around it. 4:3 Then for your part take an iron frying pan and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it. It is to be under siege; you are to besiege it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.

4:4 “Also for your part lie on your left side and place the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. For the number of days you lie on your side you will bear their iniquity. 4:5 I have determined that the number of the years of their iniquity are to be the number of days for you—390 days. So bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

vv4-6 form the basis of a theory of prophecy in which a day represents a year.  Although pre-dating the Puritans by several centuries, this belief was taken up by the Puritans – both postmillennialists and premillenialists:

‘Ezekiel is instructed to lie on his side for 390 days, then for 40 days, the first to represent 390 years, and the latter 40 years. While the Jewish rabbis had used this formula in their interpreting the book of Daniel, Protestants used it as a way of making sense of the days spoken of in the book of Revelation. As Toon observes, “For many Puritans this theory became an unquestioned premise.”38 Writers on prophecy used it to understand references to forty-two months in Revelation 11:2 and Revelation 13:5. Assuming that each month represents 30 days, the 42 months were interpreted as 1260 days (30 × 42), which was taken to mean 1260 years and seemed to be corroborated by Revelation 11:1-3.’

Lewis, D. (2021) A Short History of Christian Zionism.

4:6 “When you have completed these days, then lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days—I have assigned one day for each year. 4:7 You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it. 4:8 Look here, I will tie you up with ropes, so you cannot turn from one side to the other until you complete the days of your siege.

4:9 “As for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, put them in a single container, and make food from them for yourself. For the same number of days that you lie on your side—390 days—you will eat it. 4:10 The food you eat will be eight ounces a day by weight; you must eat it at fixed times. 4:11 And you must drink water by measure, a pint and a half; you must drink it at fixed times. 4:12 And you must eat the food like you would a barley cake. You must bake it in front of them over a fire made with dried human excrement.” 4:13 And the LORD said, “This is how the people of Israel will eat their unclean food among the nations where I will banish them.”

4:14 And I said, “Ah, sovereign LORD, I have never been ceremonially defiled before. I have never eaten a carcass or an animal torn by wild beasts; from my youth up, unclean meat has never entered my mouth.”

4:15 So he said to me, “All right then, I will substitute cow’s manure instead of human excrement. You will cook your food over it.”

4:16 Then he said to me, “Son of man, I am about to remove the bread supply in Jerusalem. They will eat their bread ration anxiously, and they will drink their water ration in terror 4:17 because they will lack bread and water. Each one will be terrified, and they will rot for their iniquity.