(Chapters 4&5)

II. PROPHETIC FALL OF JERUSALEM. Chapters 4-24

A. The Besieged City. Chapter 4

1. The Miniature City Besieged. 4:1-3

a. The city of Jerusalem will be attacked again.

b. The exiles thought they might soon return to Jerusalem.

c. Jeremiah previously had prophesied that the captivity was to last 70 years (Jer. 25:11). But no one believed him.

2. Lying down for the Accumulated years of Iniquity. 4:4-6

(The reason the Captivity is not over: the accumulated years of Israel's and Judah's sins: 430 years, the years of sojourning and captivity in Egypt).

a. 390 years of Israel....starting at 605 B.C. and going back 430 years (390 plus 40) we reach 1035 B.C., approximately the time Israel rejected God as its king and asked for an earthly king. 1st Sam. 8______

b. 40 years of Judah (wandering in the wilderness for sin): 605 B.C. plus 40 years, is 645 B.C., the approximate time during the reign of Manasseh when the sin of Judah became so severe that God decided to destroy Jerusalem (2nd Kings 21:9-14).

Note: One must wonder how long God will wait before the USA is punished? See the cup of the Amorite is not yet filled. Gen. 15:16............

3. Measured & Unclean food While Tied. 4:7-17.

a. Tied by ropes: Ezekiel could not move or get away from the siege: neither will the inhabitants of Jerusalem escape the siege.

b. Measured water and food over dung fires: Jerusalem will eat measured water and food during the siege and will become weak and wasted from scarcity. Unclean dung will substitute wood as fuel for fire.

B. The Devastated City. Chapter 5

1. The Haircut. 5:1-4

a. 1/3 of hair burned in fire at the center of the city.

b. 1/3 of hair struck with sword around the city.

c. 1/3 scattered to the wind with a sword after these also.

d. Some of the last 1/3 bound in border edge of his robe, but some of these are also burned.

2. The Cause for Punishment (devastation). 5:5-7

a. More rebellious against God than the nations around Israel.

b. Would not even observe the ordinances of the nations (Gentiles). Many times the so-called Christian nations today are worse than their pagan neighbors.

3. Punishment. 5:8-17

a. Punishment to be what never before happened, not shall ever again happen. 5:8-9. (Different than the desolation by the Romans in Matthew 24:21).

b. Fathers will eat their sons and vice versa.

c. 1/3 to die by plague and famine.

d. 1/3 to fall by the sword.

e. 1/3 to be scattered with a sword after them.

f. God's anger will be spent and satisfied.

g. Israel will become a reproach and a warning to the nations.