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“Now as for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall (A)bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. Now I have set a number of days for you corresponding to the years of their iniquity, 390 days; thus (B)you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And you shall complete these, and you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have set it for you for forty days, a day for (C)each year. Then you shall establish your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and (D)prophesy against it. Now behold, I will (E)set ropes upon you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

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

“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[e]—I have assigned one day for each year. You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it. 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.[f]

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 4:4 tn Or “punishment” (also in vv. 5, 6).
  2. Ezekiel 4:5 tn Heb “I have assigned for you that the years of their iniquity be the number of days.” Num 14:33-34 is an example of the reverse, where the days were converted into years, the number of days spying out the land becoming the number of years of the wilderness wanderings.
  3. Ezekiel 4:5 tc The LXX reads “190 days.” sn The significance of the number 390 is not clear. The best explanation is that “days” are used figuratively for years and the number refers to the years of the sinfulness of Israel during the period of the First Temple. Some understand the number to refer to the length of the division of the northern and southern kingdoms down to the fall of Jerusalem (931-586 b.c.), but this adds up to only 345 years.
  4. Ezekiel 4:5 tn Or “When you have carried the iniquity of the house of Israel,” and continuing on to the next verse.
  5. Ezekiel 4:6 sn The number 40 may refer in general to the period of Judah’s exile, indicating the number of years Israel was punished in the wilderness. In this case, however, one would need to translate, “you will bear the punishment of the house of Judah.”
  6. Ezekiel 4:8 sn The action surely refers to a series of daily acts rather than to a continuous period.