Ezekiel 4:8

Eze 4:8 And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.

Ver. 8. And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee.] To show that he was unchangeably resolved to ruin Judah, {a} whom the prophet here personateth. Some make the sense to be this, I will give thee strength to hold out in that thy long lying on one side till the city be taken. Of a nobleman of Louvain it is told, that he lay sixteen years in one posture - viz., with his face upwards. And Pradus saith he saw a madman who had lain upon one side fifteen years.

{a} Pertinacis poenae simulachrum est. - Oecolamp.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The people should so straightly be besieged, that they should not be able, to turn them.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

bands-- (Eze 3:25).

not turn from . . . side--to imply the impossibility of their being able to shake off the punishment.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(8) I will lay bands upon thee.—See on Eze_3:25. This is a fresh feature of the unrelenting character of the judgment foretold: God’s power should interpose to keep the prophet to his work. Not only pity, but even human weakness and weariness, should be excluded from interfering. The prophet is spoken of as besieging the city, because he is doing so in figure.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. from one side to another] lit. from thy side to thy side. Here the prophet represents those pressed by the rigours of the siege, as in Eze_4:4-6. The “days of thy siege” most naturally means the days of thy suffering siege (ch. Eze_5:2).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And, behold, I will lay hands upon thee,.... Representing either the besieged, signifying that they should be taken and bound as he was; or rather the besiegers, the Chaldean army, which should be so held by the power and providence of God, that they should not break up the siege until they had taken the city, and fulfilled the whole will and pleasure of God; for these bands were an emblem of the firm and unalterable decree of God, respecting the siege and taking of Jerusalem; and so the Targum paraphrases it,

"and, lo, the decree of my word is upon thee, as a band of ropes;''

and to this sense Jarchi interprets it; and which is confirmed by what follows:

and thou shall not turn thee from one side to another till thou hast ended the days of thy siege; showing that the Chaldean army should not depart from Jerusalem until it was taken; for though, upon the report of the Egyptian army coming against them, they went forth to meet it; yet they returned to Jerusalem, and never left the siege till the city fell into their hands, according to the purpose and appointment of God. Kimchi that the word for siege is in the plural number, and signifies both the "siege" of Samaria and the siege of Jerusalem; but the former was over many years before this time: by this it appears that the siege of Jerusalem should last three hundred and ninety days; indeed, from the beginning to the end of it, were seventeen months, Kg2 25:1; but the siege being raised by the army of the king of Egypt for some time, Jer 37:5, may reduce it to thirteen months, or thereabout; for three hundred and ninety days are not only intended to signify the years of Israel's sin and wickedness, but also to show how long the city would be besieged; and so long the prophet in this symbolical way was besieging it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I will lay bands upon thee - Contrast margin reference. The Lord will put constraint upon him, to cause him to exercise his office. In the retirement of his house, figuratively bound and under constraint, he shall not cease to proclaim the doom of the city.

The days of thy siege - Those during which he should thus foretell the approaching calamity.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whoever were the persons that laid bonds on Ezekiel, in Eze 3:25, here it is plain that the Lord doth it. If the prophet represent the besieged citizens who must be captives in bonds, then it is likely these bonds were visible and material, that they might be a teaching sign and admonition, that as they saw the prophet in them, so certainly he should see that come to pass which was signified by them. If he represent the Chaldeans, as those who were by Divine power as fast bound to this siege, till the city be taken, as he was tied to the place whence he could not stir a foot, then invisible bonds, which none feel or see but the prophet, may suffice these, assuring him that those could move no more from the siege than he from that side he lay on. And though the Egyptian army make some diversion, yet it is very like the siege was not quite raised, but they kept the city blocked up, whilst the gross of the army drew off to fight Pharaoh’s army, according to that Jer 37:9, the Chaldeans shall not depart.

Thy siege, Heb. plural, sieges, either because it was like two sieges by that little interruption of three or four months, or else because of the length and soreness thereof.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. To have turned from one side to the other during the continuance of this tableau would have ruined its symbolic reference to Israel and Judah (Eze_4:4; Eze_4:6). It is not stated that he must not rise up from the earth during this long period. The next verse proves that at least occasionally he is expected to get up, not only to attend to necessary duties, but to prepare for other symbolical actions. Every day, however, for one hundred and ninety days the prophet is seen lying upon his left side before the besieged city, “crushed to the ground” under the weight of Israel’s punishment. The more suffering entailed, by his speechlessness and seeming paralysis, the more intensely effective would be the impression produced by it. Many ancient Simeon stylites and modern Indian devotees have depended for their influence chiefly on such a conquest of the physical nature.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I will lay bands upon thee, etc. The words point to the supernatural constraint which would support the prophet in a position as trying as that of an Indian yogi or a Stylite monk. He would himself be powerless to move (exceptis excipiendis, as before) from the prescribed position. There is, perhaps, a reference to Eze_3:25. The people would have "put bands" upon the prophet to hinder his work; Jehovah will "put bands" upon him to help, nay, to constrain, him to finish it.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Bands - An invisible restraint assuring him, that those could no more remove from the siege, than he from that side he lay on.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

I have placed ropes upon you The decree of My commandments shall be stringent upon you as you were bound with ropes so that you should not turn from side to side.

until you complete the days of your siege The number of these days that I decreed upon you.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.