Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years
There were much additions since the original posting of Ezekiel (Ch 3-4), hence this update and excerpt here. Just wondering if there is any thoughts to the contrary? Any other possibilities? Thanks for reading.
Ezekiel 4
Below is the Septuagint (and Arabic versions; Gill says so) and putting all together, a possible explanation to the mystery of the 390/190/150/40 years:
Ezekiel 4
4 And thou shalt lie upon thy left side, and lay the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, according to the number of the hundred and fifty days which thou shalt lie upon it: and thou shalt bear their iniquities. — start with the ten tribes house of Israel and last for 150 years
5 For I have appointed thee their iniquities for a number of days, for a hundred and ninety days: so thou shalt bear the iniquities of the house of Israel. — start with the 10 tribes but end with the full house of Israel; all 12 tribes: end of the 190 years
6 And thou shalt accomplish this, and shalt lie on thy right side, and shalt bear the iniquities of the house of Juda forty days: I have appointed thee a day for a year. Ezekiel 4:4-6 Septuagint. — after the start of the 10 tribes house of Israel and last for 150 years, the house of Judah; 3 tribes join in for 40 years
9 Take thou also to thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and bread-corn; and thou shalt cast them into one earthen vessel, and shalt make them into loaves for thyself; and thou shalt eat them a hundred and ninety days, according to the number of the days which thou sleepest on thy side. Ezekiel 4:4-9 Septuagint. — from the start with 10 tribes and ends with the full house of Israel: 190 years: why the difference? Perhaps Judah had undergo numerous pogroms and cleanings whereas Ephraim has none since the day when went captivity and into apparent oblivion
We’re now in the Hebrew year 5782 and we’ll need another 217 years to usher the Divine Plan into the 7th Millennium as we believe. Of course, this is on the assumption that God’s oracles have been accurately kept since the day Adam was created as the Orthodox custodians claim.
If we add 217 years to the Gregorian calendar year 2022 we’ll come to 2239 when the 7th Millennium starts. Working backward 190 years will bring us to the Gregorian year 2049. So could the year 2049 be the start of the house of Israel’s “iniquity?” — “thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them;” Ezekiel 4:13 in captivity to start the 190 years?
No, not really: the 190 years should end with the appearance of “My servant David,” in the “valley full of dry bones” scenario (Ezekiel 37) where the full house of Israel would dwell securely rather than in captivity. Indications are that this period is a hundred year period involving “Gog and all his multitude” to the beginning of the Millennium (Ezekiel 40). If so, the start of the 190 years would be pushed back another hundred years, which would be the Gregorian year 2048; which seems having a higher possibility than the figures offered by the Masoretic Text.
On reflection the children of Israel were in Egypt for about 210 years, so cheers; this captivity of 190 years is 20 years shorter. These analyses may run away with imaginations, but the incorporation of prophecies always has elements of uncertainties and so these predictions could be prone to errors.
Okay, one Question that comes to mind is, “Why the iniquity for Israel is much longer than Judah?” Perhaps the answer could be broken into two parts: (1) the house of Judah, the Jews, have undergone pogroms numerous times over the last two and a millenium whereas the house of Israel have remained largely unscatched since their captivity was only once by the Assyrians; to be truly qualified to be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6) requiries numerous immense purifications; and that’s how the prophets of God see things. Prime examples are Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego.
And a related second reason: (2) the house of Judah has already been restored to the Land of Promise; whereas the house of Israel are still largely intact and still in exile from its Promised Land. It would take decades for adverse conditions to build up for the whole house of Israel to want to return back into their homeland to team up with the house of Judah for the fulfilment of the prophecy of the joining of the two sticks in Ezekiel 37.
Third, forty years for the house of Judah rhymes a few parallels (a) when the children of Israel rejected Joshua’s and Caleb’s suggestion to take the land immediately, they were punished by wandering in the wilderness for forty years, Numbers 14:33; (b) when the children of Israel rejected God’s judgement under the rule of the judges, God abandoned them and subjected them under the Philistines for forty years, Judges 13:1. For the Lord had said ““You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” Amos 3:2.
And finally these analyses are not written in stone and so any thoughts to the contrary are most welcome. Are there any other possibilities or factors that have been left out but could or should be considered? Thanks for your thoughts.
For more, see a possible scenario how such a scene could come about: A Sword from the South!
Joel Huan
The Mystery of Ephraim 
You seem to assume that both houses have to gain their freedom at the same time. What is you scriptural basis for this? There is a Commentary that does the same. At this point, I don’t see such a restriction being necessary, and it seems to put an unreasonable requirement on any interpretation to the passage.
there are three three problems:
(1) the 390 years, from 731 to 331 maybe exact, especially when it started with the house of Israel being carried off, but there is difficulty when it ended with the returning Jews of the house of Judah; to be consistent, it should end with any release of the same house of Israel 390 years later, and not Judah;
(2) when Alexander conquered the Persians, there is no record of Alexander setting the Jews free; in fact, years later Antiochus Epiphanes the Greek Hellenistic king set something which no other human had dare to do: Antiochus “sacrificed a great swine the altar of God that stood in the outward court, and sprinkled them with the blood of the sacrifice.”
(3) Ezekiel was asked to do two things, two riddles resulted, each had its own significance, the 390 years for the house of Israel was attempted, but there is no analysis for Judah’s forty years of iniquity; as if this riddle is of no significance.
Exactly 390 years after the House of Israel was taken captive by Assyria in 721 BC, Alexander defeated the Persians in 331 BC. You notice Ezekiel had to lie on his side for 390 days (a day for a year). Do the math, it is exact. The Persians had control of the 10 tribes at that time because two regime changes had taken place from the time of Israel’s original captivity. The Persians had defeated Babylon, who had previously defeated Assyria, giving Persia the final control.
Several facts show this was a divine occurrence. One is that Alexander, with 47,000 troops defeated a Persian army with 250,000 troops.
The first source is: https://www.israelite.ca/research/specialstudiesfiles/forgotten-prophecy-of-ezekiel.html
Encyclopedia Britannica verifies that Alexander defeated this Persian army at the Battle of Gaugamela, against overwhelming odds. “Losses: Macedonian, 700 of 47,000; Persian, possibly 20,000 of 100,000.” I think it’s a shame we have not known about this.