Ezekiel 4:3
New International Version
Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the people of Israel.

New Living Translation
Then take an iron griddle and place it between you and the city. Turn toward the city and demonstrate how harsh the siege will be against Jerusalem. This will be a warning to the people of Israel.

English Standard Version
And you, take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; and set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.

Berean Standard Bible
Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

King James Bible
Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

New King James Version
Moreover take for yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

New American Standard Bible
Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city, and direct your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

NASB 1995
“Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel.

NASB 1977
“Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel.

Legacy Standard Bible
Now as for you, get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and establish your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel.

Amplified Bible
Further, take an iron plate and place it as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel.

Christian Standard Bible
Take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Face it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign for the house of Israel.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign for the house of Israel.”

American Standard Version
And take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And take for yourself a grid of iron and set your face against it and it shall be in a siege, and you shall besiege it. This is a sign to those of the household of Israel

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And take thou to thyself an iron pan, and thou shalt set it for an iron wall between thee and the city: and thou shalt set thy face against it, and it shall be in a siege, and thou shalt besiege it. This is a sign to the children of Israel.

Contemporary English Version
Set up an iron pan like a wall between you and the brick. All this will be a warning for the people of Israel.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And take unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face resolutely against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it: it is a sign to the house of Israel.

English Revised Version
And take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Then take an iron pan, and set it up as a wall between you and the city. Turn your face toward the city as if you were going to attack it, and then attack it. This is a sign for the people of Israel.

Good News Translation
Take an iron pan and set it up like a wall between you and the city. Face the city. It is under siege, and you are the one besieging it. This will be a sign to the nation of Israel.

International Standard Version
Then you are to take a flat, iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. "Next, you are to turn toward it, oppose it, and place it under siege, because you are to lay siege to it. All of this will serve as a sign to the house of Israel.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And take thou unto thee an iron griddle, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city; and set thy face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

Literal Standard Version
And you, take an iron pan for yourself, and you have made it a wall of iron between you and the city; and you have prepared your face against it, and it has been in a siege, indeed, you have laid siege against it. It [is] a sign to the house of Israel.

Majority Standard Bible
Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

New American Bible
Then take an iron pan and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it and put it under siege. So you must lay siege to it as a sign for the house of Israel.

NET Bible
Then for your part take an iron frying pan and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it. It is to be under siege; you are to besiege it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.

New Revised Standard Version
Then take an iron plate and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.

New Heart English Bible
Take for yourself an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city: and set your face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

Webster's Bible Translation
Moreover take thou to thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

World English Bible
Take for yourself an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city. Then set your face toward it. It will be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

Young's Literal Translation
And thou, take to thee an iron pan, and thou hast made it a wall of iron between thee and the city; and thou hast prepared thy face against it, and it hath been in a siege, yea, thou hast laid siege against it. A sign it is to the house of Israel.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
A Sign of Jerusalem's Siege
2Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp to it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it on all sides. 3Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel. 4Then lie down on your left side and place the iniquity of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their iniquity for the number of days you lie on your side.…

Cross References
Isaiah 8:18
Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me as signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

Isaiah 20:3
Then the LORD said, "Just as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and omen against Egypt and Cush,

Jeremiah 39:1
In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army and laid siege to the city.

Jeremiah 39:2
And on the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh year, the city was breached.

Ezekiel 5:2
When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them.

Ezekiel 12:6
And as they watch, lift your bags to your shoulder and take them out at dusk; cover your face so that you cannot see the land. For I have made you a sign to the house of Israel."

Ezekiel 12:11
You are to say, 'I am a sign to you.' Just as it happened here, so will it be done to them; they will go into exile as captives.


Treasury of Scripture

Moreover take you to you an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city: and set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

an iron pan.

Leviticus 2:5
And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil.

This

Ezekiel 12:6,11
In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulders, and carry it forth in the twilight: thou shalt cover thy face, that thou see not the ground: for I have set thee for a sign unto the house of Israel…

Ezekiel 24:24-27
Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD…

Isaiah 8:18
Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.

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Ezekiel 4
1. Under type of a siege is shown the time from the defection of Jeroboam to captivity
9. By the provision of the siege, is shown the hardness of the famine














(3) An iron pan.--The margin gives the sense more accurately, a flat plate. It was used for baking cakes (see Leviticus 2:5, marg.). This was to be set for a wall of iron between the prophet (representing the besiegers) and the city, doubtless as symbolical of the strength of the besiegers' lines, and of the impossibility there would be of an escape from the city by a sally. Their foes should be made too strong for them defensively as well as offensively.

A sign to the house of Israel.--As already said, the tribe of Judah, with the associated remnants of the other tribes, is considered as representing the whole nation after the Assyrian captivity, and is spoken of as "the house of Israel" except when there is occasion to distinguish especially between the two parts of the nation. (See Ezekiel 3:7; Ezekiel 3:17; Ezekiel 5:4; Ezekiel 8:6; 2Chronicles 21:2; 2Chronicles 28:27, &c.) The prophecy would have been equally effective whether seen as a symbolic act or only related. . . .

Verse 3. - An iron pan. The word is used in Leviticus 2:5; Leviticus 6:21, et al., for a flat or shallow vessel in which cakes were baked or fried. Such a pan, like the Scotch "girdle," or our "gridiron," may well have formed part of the furniture of the prophet's house when it was taken for this strange use. It was to represent the kind of shield or fence set up on the ground, from behind which the besiegers discharged their arrows. Such shields are seen, like the battering rams, in Assyrian bas-reliefs (Layard, 'Nineveh,' etc., 2:345). Other interpretations, which see in it the symbol of the circumvallation of the city, or of the impenetrable barrier which the sins of the people had set up between themselves and Jehovah, or of the prophet himself as strong and unyielding (Jeremiah 1:18), do not commend themselves. The flat plate did not go round the city, and the spiritual meaning is out of harmony with the context. This shall be a sign, etc. (comp. like forms in Ezekiel 12:6, 11; Ezekiel 24:25, 27). The exiles of Tel-Abib, who wore the only spectators of the prophet's acts, are taken as representatives of "the house of Israel," that phrase being commonly used by Ezekiel, unless, as in vers. 5, 6, and Ezekiel 37:16, there is a special reason for noting a distinction for Jonah as representing the whole nation.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Then
וְאַתָּ֤ה (wə·’at·tāh)
Conjunctive waw | Pronoun - second person masculine singular
Strong's 859: Thou and thee, ye and you

take
קַח־ (qaḥ-)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 3947: To take

an iron
בַּרְזֶ֔ל (bar·zel)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1270: Iron, an iron implement

plate
מַחֲבַ֣ת (ma·ḥă·ḇaṯ)
Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 4227: A flat plate, pan, griddle

and set it up
וְנָתַתָּ֤ה (wə·nā·ṯat·tāh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 5414: To give, put, set

as an iron
בַּרְזֶ֔ל (bar·zel)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1270: Iron, an iron implement

wall
קִ֣יר (qîr)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 7023: A wall

between yourself
בֵּינְךָ֖ (bê·nə·ḵā)
Preposition | second person masculine singular
Strong's 996: An interval, space between

and the city.
הָעִ֑יר (hā·‘îr)
Article | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 5892: Excitement

Turn
וַהֲכִינֹתָה֩ (wa·hă·ḵî·nō·ṯāh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Conjunctive perfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 3559: To be erect

your face
פָּנֶ֨יךָ (pā·ne·ḵā)
Noun - common plural construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 6440: The face

toward it
אֵלֶ֜יהָ (’ê·le·hā)
Preposition | third person feminine singular
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

so that it is
וְהָיְתָ֤ה (wə·hā·yə·ṯāh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

under siege,
בַמָּצוֹר֙ (ḇam·mā·ṣō·wr)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4692: Something hemming in, a mound, a siege, distress, a fastness

and besiege it.
וְצַרְתָּ֣ (wə·ṣar·tā)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 6696: To confine, bind, besiege

This
הִ֖יא (hî)
Pronoun - third person feminine singular
Strong's 1931: He, self, the same, this, that, as, are

will be a sign
א֥וֹת (’ō·wṯ)
Noun - common singular
Strong's 226: A signal, as a, flag, beacon, monument, omen, prodigy, evidence

to the house
לְבֵ֥ית (lə·ḇêṯ)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 1004: A house

of Israel.
יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ (yiś·rā·’êl)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3478: Israel -- 'God strives', another name of Jacob and his desc


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OT Prophets: Ezekiel 4:3 Take for yourself an iron pan (Ezek. Eze Ezk)
Ezekiel 4:2
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