Ezekiel 4:4-6

4:4 “Also for your part lie on your left side and place the iniquity ¹  of the house of Israel on it. For the number of days you lie on your side you will bear their iniquity. 4:5 I have determined that the number of the years of their iniquity are to be the number of days ²  for you – 390 days. ³  So bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁴ 

4:6 “When you have completed these days, then lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days ⁵  – I have assigned one day for each year.

Ezekiel 4:17

4:17 because they will lack bread and water. Each one will be terrified, and they will rot for their iniquity. ⁶ 

[4:4]  ¹ tn Or “punishment” (also in vv. 5, 6).

[4:5]  ² tn Heb “I have assigned for you that the years of their iniquity be the number of days.” Num 14:33-34 is an example of the reverse, where the days were converted into years, the number of days spying out the land becoming the number of years of the wilderness wanderings.

[4:5]  ³ tc The LXX reads “190 days.”

[4:5]  ⁴ tn Or “When you have carried the iniquity of the house of Israel,” and continuing on to the next verse.

[4:6]  ⁵ sn The number 40 may refer in general to the period of Judah’s exile using the number of years Israel was punished in the wilderness. In this case, however, one would need to translate, “you will bear the punishment of the house of Judah.”

[4:17]  ⁶ tn Or “in their punishment.” Ezek 4:16-17 alludes to Lev 26:26, 39. The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here, 3:18, 19; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment for iniquity.”