Ezekiel 4:1
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
You also, son of man, take you a tile, and lay it before you, and portray on it the city, even Jerusalem:
American King James Version (AKJV)
You also, son of man, take you a tile, and lay it before you, and portray on it the city, even Jerusalem:
American Standard Version (ASV)
Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it a city, even Jerusalem:
Basic English Translation (BBE)
And you, son of man, take a back and put it before you and on it make a picture of a town, even Jerusalem.
Webster's Revision
Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem;
World English Bible
You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem:
English Revised Version (ERV)
Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it a city, even Jerusalem:
Clarke's Ezekiel 4:1 Bible Commentary
Take thee a tile - A tile, such as we use in covering houses, will give us but a very inadequate notion of those used anciently; and also appear very insufficient for the figures which the prophet was commanded to pourtray on it. A brick is most undoubtedly meant; yet, even the larger dimensions here, as to thickness, will not help us through the difficulty, unless we have recourse to the ancients, who have spoken of the dimensions of the bricks commonly used in building. Palladius, De Re Rustica, lib. 6 c. 12, is very particular on this subject: - Sint vero lateres longitudine pedum duorum, latitudine unius, altitudine quatuor unciarum. "Let the bricks be two feet long, one foot broad, and four inches thick." Edit. Gesner, vol. 3 p. 144. On such a surface as this the whole siege might be easily pourtrayed. There are some brick-bats before me which were brought from the ruins of ancient Babylon, which have been made of clay and straw kneaded together and baked in the sun; one has been more than four inches thick, and on one side it is deeply impressed with characters; others are smaller, well made, and finely impressed on one side with Persepolitan characters. These have been for inside or ornamental work; to such bricks the prophet most probably alludes.
But the tempered clay out of which the bricks were made might be meant here; of this substance he might spread out a sufficient quantity to receive all his figures. The figures were
1Jerusalem.
2. A fort.
3. A mount.
4. The camp of the enemy.
5. Battering rams, and such like engines, round about.
6. A wall round about the city, between it and the besieging army.
Barnes's Ezekiel 4:1 Bible Commentary
A tile - Rather, a brick. Sun-dried or kiln-burned bricks were from very early times used for building walls throughout the plain of Mesopotamia. The bricks of Nineveh and Babylon are sometimes stamped with what appears to be the device of the king in whose reign they were made, and often covered with a kind of enamel on which various scenes are portrayed. Among the subjects depicted on such bricks discovered at Nimroud are castles and forts.
Wesley's Ezekiel 4:1 Bible Commentary
4:1 Portray - Draw a map of Jerusalem.
