Ezekiel 4:2
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.
American King James Version (AKJV)
And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.
American Standard Version (ASV)
and lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it round about.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
And make an attack on it, shutting it in, building strong places against it, and making high an earthwork against it; and put up tents against it, placing engines all round it for smashing down its walls.
Webster's Revision
And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it on every side.
World English Bible
and lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around.
English Revised Version (ERV)
and lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mount against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it round about.
Definitions for Ezekiel 4:2
Clarke's Ezekiel 4:2 Bible Commentary
Battering rams - כרים carim. This is the earliest account we have of this military engine. It was a long beam with a head of brass, like the head and horns of a ram, whence its name. It was hung by chains or ropes, between two beams, or three legs, so that it could admit of being drawn backward and forward some yards. Several stout men, by means of ropes, pulled it as far back as it could go, and then, suddenly letting it loose, it struck with great force against the wall which it was intended to batter and bring down. This machine was not known in the time of Homer, as in the siege of Troy there is not the slightest mention of such. And the first notice we have of it is here, where we see that it was employed by Nebuchadnezzar in the siege of Jerusalem, A.M. 3416. It was afterwards used by the Carthaginians at the siege of Gades, as Vitruvius notes, lib. 10 c. 19, in which he gives a circumstantial account of the invention, fabrication, use, and improvement of this machine. It was for the want of a machine of this kind, that the ancient sieges lasted so long; they had nothing with which to beat down or undermine the walls.
Barnes's Ezekiel 4:2 Bible Commentary
Lay siege against it - The prophet is represented as doing that which he portrays. The leading features of a siege are depicted. See the Jeremiah 6:6 note.
The camp - Encampments. The word denotes various hosts in various positions around the city.
Fort - It was customary in sieges to construct towers of vast height, sometimes of 20 stories, which were wheeled up to the walls to enable the besiegers to reach the battlements with their arrows; in the lower part of such a tower there was commonly a battering-ram. These towers are frequently represented in the Assyrian monuments.
Battering rams - Better than the translation in the margin. Assyrian monuments prove that these engines of war are of great antiquity. These engines seem to have been beams suspended by chains generally in moveable towers, and to have been applied against the walls in the way familiar to us from Greek and Roman history. The name "ram" was probably given to describe their mode of operation; no Assyrian monument yet discovered exhibits the ram's head of later times.
Wesley's Ezekiel 4:2 Bible Commentary
4:2 Lay siege - Draw the figure of a siege about the city.Build - Raise a tower and bulwarks.
