Ezekiel — Chapter 4
Chapter 4 presents the symbolic siege of Jerusalem enacted by Ezekiel lying on his side — 390 days on his left for Israel's sin, 40 days on his right for Judah's. Lapide gives an extended chronological analysis of these numbers, correlating them with the years from the division of the kingdom to the captivity, drawing on Jerome, Theodoret, and his own calculations.
Verse 1
The clay tablet representing Jerusalem on which Ezekiel draws the siege (later tuum): Lapide sees the clay as the human heart, hardened by sin, upon which God inscribes His judgments. The prophet acts out the divine decree in his own body — a form of living prophecy that Lapide calls prophetia facti (prophecy by deed) as distinct from prophetia verbi.
Verse 4
The 390 years on the left side for Israel: Lapide follows Jerome and Origen in complex chronological reckoning, finally settling on these as the years of Israel's schismatic idolatry from Jeroboam to the Assyrian captivity. The 40 days for Judah he connects to the 40 years of desert wandering as a type, and to the 40 days of Jonah's preaching to Nineveh.
Verse 6
The forty days for Judah representing years of sin: Lapide draws on Origen's Homilies on Numbers for the significance of forty in Scripture — forty years of desert wandering, forty days of flood, forty days of Moses on Sinai, forty days of Elijah's journey, forty days of Christ's fast. The number forty consistently represents a period of purifying trial.