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it is fitting for you to spend the designated time on each side, not moving, so that they may learn the sentence brought against them. 9, 10. And you, son of man, take for yourself wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and you will put them into one earthen vessel, and you will make them for yourself into loaves of bread, according to the number of the days, which you lie on your side; for one hundred and ninety days you will eat them. And your food, which you will eat, by weight shall be twenty shekels a day; from time to time you will eat it. The prophet is commanded arduous things, receiving in himself the type of those being punished, and teaching the people, through the things he was ordered to do, the famine that would be in Jerusalem. Therefore he is commanded to make the bread not only from wheat, but also from millet, and spelt, and beans; such food is a sign of want; and the weight again signifies the scarcity. For once a day, he says, you will eat twenty shekels, which make three ounces, and a little more, as those who have studied these weights and measures say. 11. And you will drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from time to time you will drink it. And this again indicates the intensity of the want which the siege has caused; the hin was a measure among them; the sixth part of which, according to the Syrian, contained half a sextarius; and the prophet was ordered to drink this measure, in order to signify beforehand the scarcity of necessities that would come upon them from the siege. 12. And you will eat it as a barley cake; you will bake it on human dung in their sight. You will bake, he says, these various kinds of grain, as they are accustomed to make barley loaves; and let the fuel for the fire of baking be human dung, as an indication of the defilements that will befall them among the nations. Therefore he adds: 13. Thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the nations, where I will scatter them. For it was necessary, being captives and mingling with foreign nations, not to live according to the law, but to receive many occasions for transgression from the intermingling. 14. And I said, By no means, Lord God of Israel; behold, my soul has not been defiled with uncleanness, 81.861 and I have not eaten anything that died of itself or was torn by beasts from my birth until now, nor has any stale and profane meat entered my mouth. Compelled, the prophet lays bare his lawful way of life, supplicating the philanthropic Lord to annul the commands with another order; and he immediately persuaded him; for he is good and easily moved by suppliants, just as indeed then, he commanded him to use cow dung for the baking. To these he adds: 16, 17. Son of man, behold, I am breaking the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and in want, and they will drink water by measure and in ruin. So that they may be in want of bread and water; and a man and his brother will be destroyed, and they will waste away in their iniquities. Two things are signified by that baking: through the weight, the famine in Jerusalem, and through the unclean preparation, the way of life among the lawless nations. But the punishment contains justice. "For they will waste away," he says, "in their iniquities;" for they will pay the penalty, he says, for the things in which they continually transgressed.

CHAP. V. 1. And you, son of man, take for yourself a sharp sword, like a razor

of a barber, and get it for yourself, and you shall pass it over your head, and over your beard, and you shall take a weighing balance, and you shall divide them. The sword signifies the punitive power; and the removal of the hair of the head and of the beard, the deprivation of dignity; and the scales and weights, the justice of God's sentence; for nothing is unweighed in his unsearchable judgments.

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προσήκει σε τὸν ὡρισμέ νον χρόνον ἐφ' ἑκατέρου διατελέσαι πλευροῦ, μὴ μετακινούμενον, ὥστε τὴν ἐπενεχθεῖσαν κατ' αὐτῶν μαθεῖν αὐτοὺς ψῆφον. θʹ, ιʹ. Καὶ σὺ, υἱὲ ἀνθρώπου, λάβε σεαυτῷ πυ ροὺς, καὶ κριθὰς, καὶ κύαμον, καὶ φακὸν, καὶ κέγχρον, καὶ ὀλύραν, καὶ ἐμβαλεῖς αὐτὰ εἰς ἄγ γος ἓν ὀστράκινον, καὶ ποιήσεις αὐτὰ ἑαυτῷ εἰς ἄρτους, κατὰ ἀριθμὸν τῶν ἡμερῶν, ὧν σὺ καθ εύδεις ἐπὶ τοῦ πλευροῦ σου· ἐννενήκοντα καὶ ἑκατὸν ἡμέραις φάγεσαι αὐτά. Καὶ τὸ βρῶμά σου, ὃ φάγεσαι, ἐν σταθμῷ εἴκοσι σίκλους τὴν ἡμέραν, ἀπὸ καιροῦ ἕως καιροῦ φάγεσαι αὐτά. Ἐπίπονα ὁ προφήτης ἐπιτάττεται, τῶν τιμωρουμέ νων τὸν τύπον ἐν ἑαυτῷ δεχόμενος, καὶ διδάσκων τὸν λαὸν, δι' ὧν ποιεῖν ἐκελεύετο, τὸν ἐσόμενον ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις λιμόν. ∆ιὸ καὶ οὐκ ἐκ πυρῶν μόνον κατασκευάζειν τὸν ἄρτον προστάττεται, ἀλλὰ καὶ κέγχρου, καὶ ὀλύρας, καὶ κυάμου· ἡ δὲ τοιαύτη βρῶ σις, ἐνδείας σημεῖον· καὶ ὁ σταθμὸς δὲ πάλιν τὴν σπάνιν σημαίνει. Ἅπαξ γὰρ, φησὶ, τῆς ἡμέρας φάγεσαι εἴκοσι σίκλους, οἳ ποιοῦσι τρεῖς ὀγκίας, καὶ μικρόν τι πρὸς, ὥς φασιν οἱ τὰ στάθμια ταῦτα καὶ τὰ μέτρα ἠκριβωκότες. ιαʹ. Καὶ ὕδωρ μέτρῳ πίεσαι, τὸ ἔκτον τοῦ ἳν ἀπὸ καιροῦ ἕως καιροῦ πίεσαι. Καὶ τοῦτο πά λιν τὴν ἐπίτασιν τῆς ἐνδείας ἢν ἡ πολιορκία πεποίηκε, παραδηλοῖ· τὸ δὲ ἳν, μέτρον ἦν παρ' αὐτοῖς· οὗ τὸ ἕκτον κατὰ τὸν Σύρον ἥμισυ ξέστου ἐχώρει· τοῦτο δὲ τὸ μέτρον πίνειν ὁ προφήτης ἐκελεύετο, ἵνα προ σημήνῃ τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς πολιορκίας αὐτοῖς γενησομένην τῶν ἀναγκαίων σπάνιν. ιβʹ. Καὶ ἐγκρυφίαν κρίθινον φάγεσαι αὐτά· ἐν βολβίτοις κόπρου ἀνθρωπίνης ἐγκρύψεις αὐτὰ κατ' ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτῶν. Ἀρτοποιήσεις δὲ, φησὶ, τὰ παντοδαπὰ ταῦτα σπέρματα, ὡς εἰώθασι τοὺς κριθί νους ἄρτους κατασκευάζειν· ὕλη δὲ τοῦ τῆς ἀρτο ποιΐας πυρὸς ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη κόπρος γενέσθω, εἰς ἔν δειξιν τῶν ἐσομένων αὐτοῖς ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσι μιασμά των. ∆ιὸ ἐπάγει· ιγʹ. Οὕτως φάγονται οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ τὸν ἄρτον αὐτῶν ἀκάθαρτον ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, οὗ διασκορ πιῶ αὐτούς. Ἀνάγκη γὰρ ἦν, ἅτε δὴ αἰχμαλώ τους, καὶ ἀλλοφύλοις ἔθνεσιν ἐπιμιγνυμένους, οὐ κατὰ νόμον πολιτεύεσθαι, ἀλλὰ πολλὰς ἐκ τῆς ἐπι μιξίας ἀφορμὰς εἰς παρανομίαν λαμβάνειν. ιδʹ. Καὶ εἶπον, Μηδαμῶς Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς Ἰσραήλ· ἰδοὺ ἡ ψυχή μου οὐ μεμίαται ἐν ἀκαθαρσίᾳ, 81.861 καὶ θνησιμαῖον καὶ θηριάλωτον οὐ βέβρωκα ἀπὸ γενέσεώς μου ἕως τοῦ νῦν, οὐδὲ εἰσελήλυθεν εἰς τὸ στόμα μου πᾶν κρέας ἕωλον καὶ βέβηλον. Ἀναγκασθεὶς ὁ προφήτης τὴν ἔννομον αὑτοῦ πο λιτείαν γυμνοῖ, ἱκετεύων τὸν φιλάνθρωπον ∆εσπότην προστάγματι ἑτέρῳ λῦσαι τὰ κελευσθέντα· καὶ παρ αυτίκα πέπεικεν· ἀγαθὸς γὰρ καὶ ῥᾳδίως τοῖς ἱκέταις ἐπικαμπτόμενος, ὥσπερ ἀμέλει καὶ τότε, βολβίτοις χρήσασθαι βοῶν εἰς τὴν ἀρτοποιΐαν ἐκέλευσε. Τού τοις ἐπάγει· ι ϛʹ, ιζʹ. Υἱὲ ἀνθρώπου, ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ συντρίβω στή ριγμα ἄρτου ἐν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ φάγονται ἄρτον ἐν σταθμῷ καὶ ἐν ἐνδείᾳ, καὶ ὕδωρ ἐν μέτρῳ καὶ ἐν ἀφανισμῷ πίονται. Ὅπως ἐνδεεῖς ἄρτου καὶ ὕδατος γένωνται· καὶ ἀφανισθήσεται ἄν θρωπος καὶ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐντακήσονται ἐν ταῖς ἀδικίαις αὐτῶν. ∆ύο δὲ διὰ τῆς ἀρτοποιΐας ἐκείνης σημαίνεται πράγματα, διὰ μὲν τοῦ σταθμοῦ ὁ ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις λιμὸς, διὰ δὲ τῆς ἀκαθάρτου κα τασκευῆς ἡ ἐν τοῖς παρανόμοις ἔθνεσι διαγωγή. Ἀλλὰ τὸ δίκαιον ἡ τιμωρία περιέχει. "Ἐντακήσονται γὰρ, φησὶν, ἐν ταῖς ἀδικίαις αὑτῶν·" δίκας γὰρ, φησὶ, τίσουσιν ὧν πλημμελοῦντες διετέλεσαν.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. Εʹ. αʹ. Καὶ σὺ, υἱὲ ἀνθρώπου, λάβε σεαυτῷ ῥομ φαίαν ὀξεῖαν, ὥσπερ ξυρὸν

κουρέως, καὶ κτῆ σαι αὐτὴν σεαυτῷ, καὶ ἐπάξεις ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλήν σου, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν πώγωνά σου, καὶ λήψῃ ζυγὸν σταθμίων, καὶ διαστήσεις αὐτούς. Ἡ ῥομφαία τὴν τιμωρητικὴν αἰνίττεται δύναμιν· ἡ δὲ τῶν τριχῶν τῆς κεφαλῆς καὶ τοῦ πώγωνος ἀφαίρεσις, τῆς εὐπρεπείας τὴν στέρησιν· τὰ δὲ ζυγὰ καὶ σταθμία, τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ ψήφου τὸ δίκαιον· οὐδὲν γὰρ ἀστάθμητον παρὰ τοῖς ἀνεξερευνήτοις αὐτοῦ κρίμασι.