NOTES for Eze 4:1-17

What Ezekiel, then in Babylon, drew Jerusalem upon must have been not a brick but a clay tablet, but that is not the point. We encounter strange forms of behavior, highly extravagant and at odds with our idea of what is normal. Yet this form of testimony, so unusual to us, was not unacceptable at the time. On the contrary, unconventional actions only drew the listeners’ attention more strongly to the prophetic words and confirmed the seriousness and validity of the preaching.

The prophet’s words show that, even in exile, he continues to preserve his unity with Jerusalem and his bond with his compatriots who are still in their homeland. As for the compatriots in captivity with him, the prophet has no intention of soothing them with false illusions. He understands that the captivity resulted from unrepented sins and that the people continue to commit them. Again and again the prophet warns of danger, yet once more—as had happened many times before and would happen many times again—few listen to the one who warns them...