Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years Timeline
God speaks through prophet Isaiah, “Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is none other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,’” Isaiah 46:9-10.
A clue of “declaring the end from the beginning,” for this Ezekiel Timeline – 390/40 Years could be found in a parallel exile. Israel had evidently failed to observe the land’s one-year-in-seven Sabbath for 490 years, so the term of the Babylonian captivity was set at 70 years to make up the deficit.
But let’s consider an earlier prophecy:
“And I will scatter you among the nations, and will draw out a sword after you; and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.
“‘Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate and ye are in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths” Leviticus 26:33-34
God says when ye entered my land you defiled it by not giving its Sabbath rest; where this commandment is given in Leviticus 25:4; “Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of Rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord; thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard” Leviticus 25:1-7;
The length of the house of Judah’s captivity of in Babylon was directly related from the length of time they neglected to observe the land Sabbath according to II Chronicles 36:19-21:
And they burned the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all the palaces thereof with fire and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. 20 And those who had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia,
21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years, II Chronicles 36:19-21: ‘by the mouth or spoken by Jeremiah’ this is a reference to the seventy years of captivity as spelt out in Jeremiah 25:11.
From the above, it could be established that the length of captivity has something to do with Israel’s neglect in their observance of the Sabbath, and in this case the observance of the land Sabbath; for more on understanding the coming 390 years of Israel’s captivity and 40 years for Judah, God works out the end from the beginning and our endeavour is to understand how are the numbers work out.
God gives some clues and hints here and there and the most puzzling of this Ezekiel Timeline – 390/40 Years which is one found in chapter 4.
Some attempts have been made on this 390/40 mystery years ago but there are many additions since the original postings of Ezekiel Ch 3-4 and Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years, hence this update. I’ve always been wondering if there are any thoughts to the contrary? Any other possibilities? And so my constant updates.
Ezekiel 4
It has been proven in numerous times that the Septuagint is more accurate than the Masoretic, and in Ezekiel 4, the figures given (190/150/40 instead of 390/40) seem more authentic (for more on the Septuagint being more accurate than the Masoretic, click here Lies about the Septuagint).
Hence below is the Septuagint version and putting all the numbers (in Ezekiel 4:5 & 4:9 LXX reads 190; in Ezekiel 4:4 the reading is 150) together is a more possible explanation to the mystery of the 390/190/150/40 years which has puzzled theologians, researchers and academics in Ezekiel 4.
We’re now in the Hebrew year 5785 and we’ll need another 215 years to usher the Divine Plan into the 7th Millennium as most believe. Of course, this is on the assumption that God’s oracles have been accurately kept since the day Adam was created as the Jewish Orthodox custodians claim.
Adding another 215 years to our current year 2025 will bring us to the year 2240.
Ezekiel 4 (Septuagint)
God was prophesying through Ezekiel, asking the prophet to symbolically bear the iniquities of both the children of Israel and the children of Judah:
1 And thou, son of man, take thee a brick, and thou shalt set it before thy face, and shalt portray on it the city, even Jerusalem.
2 And thou shalt besiege it, and build works against it, and throw up a mound round about it, and pitch camps against it, and set up engines round about.
3 And take thou to thyself an iron pan, and thou shalt set it for an iron wall between thee and the city: and thou shalt set thy face against it, and it shall be in a siege, and thou shalt besiege it. This is a sign to the children of Israel.
— the above three verses is symbolic of a prophecy facing Jerusalem, a siege, for all the children of Israel: the southern Judea, led by Judah; and the northern 10-tribes Samaria, led by Ephraim;
— around the city of Jerusalem is to draw representations of siege operations, towers, a mound, camps and battering-rams; all these are symbols of a hard military siege, carried on with great determination and apparatus against a lofty nation;
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.
— this riddle starts with the Lost Ten Tribes House of Israel—the left side—the Northern Kingdom and lasts for 150 years; while Judah, the Southern Kingdom, answers to “the right side;”
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 Lost 10 Tribes but end with the full House of Israel; all 12 tribes: end of the 190 years;
— that is, after the start of the Lost 10 Tribes House of Israel that lasted for 150 years, the 3 tribes House of Judah joins in for 40 years; both ending at the end of the 190 years; that is, the year 2233 (explains below: I’d give 7 years for the Gog and Magog episode: hence 7 years back from 2240);
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.
— after the start of the house of Israel in 2042, that lasted for 150 years, the house of Judah joins in for the last 40 years; both ending at the end of the 190 years; that is, the years for the house of Judah’s iniquities are from 2193 to 2233;
— if the year 2233 is the end of the 190 years, then the beginning of bearing Israel’s iniquity would be the year 2043;
— so, perhaps the year 2043 could be the start of the house of Israel’s “captivity!”
7 Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem; and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it. — the logic here is that the 40 years is a siege of Jerusalem and of course this represents the modern house of Judah;
8 And behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another until thou hast ended the days of thy siege. — “not turn thee from one side to another” is a sign of being in captivity, where freedom of turning left or right is restricted or even non-existent
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.
— from the start with the northern Lost 10 Tribes and ends with the full House of Israel: 190 years in captivity: why the difference? Perhaps Judah had undergo numerous pogroms and cleanings whereas Ephraim and the other tribes has virtually none since the day when they went the Assyrian captivity and into apparent oblivion.
10 And thou shalt eat thy food by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat them. — whatever the real weight is, or a value of twenty shekels is, the atmosphere is one of scarcely enough to sustain life.
11 And thou shalt drink water by measure, even from time to time thou shalt drink the sixth part of a hin. — as long as Ezekiel lay and bore the sins of Israel, he was to eat his food and drink by measure, and unclean; in great contrast to the days of milk and honey;
— and this downfall of Israel ties in with a prophecy by Isaac on Esau after finding out that he had lost his birthright to his brother, Jacob:
“And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother [Jacob]; — that is, under the hegemony and yoke of the Monroe Doctrine since December 2, 1823;
but it will be that when his sons [the endtime children of Israel, led especially by Ephraim, the United States] become evil [such as leading in a global woke rot], and fall from keeping the commandments of the law [a culture of telling lies, swearing false oaths, domestic killings and breaking of God’s Sabbaths], thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck….and then will I kill Jakob my brother,” Genesis 27:41-42 Jonathan
12 And thou shalt eat them as a barley cake: thou shalt bake them before their eyes in man’s dung. — man’s dung, or for a more graphic sight in the Masoretic version, “dung that cometh out of man, in their sight;”
— to bake it over the man’s dung, that is, God is speaking derogatively of sinful birthright Ephraim, worst then cow dung, so that man’s dung forms the material of the fire; and must have passed on its loathsome odour and taste to their bread or other food;
13 And thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Thus shall the children of Israel eat unclean things among the Gentiles. — and during the siege is to suffer hunger and terror as a punishment for the sins of Israel and Judah; thus their sins would bring them to extremest of wants and shames in the sights of the heathens;
14 Then I said, Not so, Lord God of Israel: surely my soul has not been defiled with uncleanness; nor have I eaten that which died of itself or was torn of beasts from my birth until now; neither has any corrupt flesh entered into my mouth. — this indicates that even the pious and other seemingly righteous would suffer greatly during the siege of both Israel and Judah;
15 And he said to me, Behold, I have given thee dung of oxen instead of man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy loaves upon it. — then he said to me; the Lord hearkened to the prophet’s prayer and argument, and makes some concession to the initial charge he gave him;
— and condescends to Ezekiel and all those that are pious that they could use what was less abominable of cow dung instead of man’s dung;
16 And he said to me, Son of man, behold, I break the support of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight and in want; and shall drink water by measure, and in a state of ruin:
— the significance of the foregoing symbolism is declared in plain language: bread, as the chief article of food is put for all food, the specific for the general; there shall be extreme suffering and distress, as a part of the punishment for their long-continued sins;
17 that they may want bread and water; and a man and his brother shall be brought to ruin, and they shall pine away in their iniquities. (Ezekiel 4:1-16 Septuagint);
— this refers to the 190 days of Israel and also the 40 days of Judah, so that as long as Ezekiel lay and bore the sins of both, he was to eat his food by measure, as well as the eating of unclean bread, when the Israelites were captives among heathen nations.
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Bishop Ussher had famously calculated the date of creation to be 4004 BC, and if so the end of the 6000 years would have ended in 1994; but it was wrong as such date had fallen off the cliff more than three decades ago.
We’ll hence use the Jewish Calendar. We’re now in the Hebrew year 5785 AM; (AM stands for “Anno Mundi,” Latin for “in the year of Adam and Eve Creation”) and we’ll need another 215 years (added to total 6000, to the 6000th year) to usher the Divine Plan into the 7th Millennium (from the year 6000) as most 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; since the Jewish Calendar has been accepted by all forms of Judaism and is standard for Asheknazim, Sephardim and Mizrachim.
If we add 215 years to the Gregorian calendar year 2025 we’ll come to 2240 when the 7th Millennium starts. Working backward 190 years (and perhaps 7 years for Gog and Magog, totalling 197 years) will bring us to the year 2043. Thence could the year 2043 or somewhere there be the start of the house of Israel’s ‘iniquity’? or “Captivity”?
— “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. It seems so, nevertheless.
In Ezekiel 37, the 190 years should end with the appearance of “My servant David,” in the “valley full of dry bones” scenario where the full house of Israel would dwell securely rather than in captivity. Judgement often comes after a period of seven years as the dynamic of the number seven is interwoven throughout the Bible.
Jacob served Laban seven years for Leah and another seven for Rachel. Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream of seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. In Psalms 12:6 the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace purified seven times.
As for punishment for the Gentiles, one prominent example was Nebuchadnezzar, who was punished for seven years by having an unsound mind and eating grass. And if this seven year period applies to the punishment of Gentiles involving “Gog and all his multitude” (Ezekiel 38-40) there will be a seven years interval before the beginning of the Millennium.
If so, the end of the 190 years would be brought forward seven years, which would be the year 2233, and the start of the 190 years would be 2043; but we couldn’t know for sure the period from Ezekiel 37 to Ezekiel 40 is seven years, hence these figures are based on the assumption of seven years.
On reflection the children of Israel were in Egypt for about 210 years, so this captivity of 190 years is 20 years shorter. These analyses may run away with some assumptions, but the incorporation of prophecies always has elements of uncertainties and so these predictions could be prone to errors.
One Question that comes to mind is, “Why the iniquity for Israel is much longer than Judah?” Perhaps the answer could be broken into three parts: (1) the house of Judah, the Jews, have undergone pogroms numerous times over the last two and a millennium whereas the house of Israel have remained largely unscatched since their captivity was only once by the Assyrians.
To be truly qualified to be kings and priests or 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. God’s message usually has sweetness in the mouth (Ezekiel 3:3), but bitterness when reaches the stomach!
And I went unto the angel and said unto him, “Give me the little book.” And he said unto me, “Take it and eat it up, and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.”
And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it up, and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter, Revelation 10:9-10
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.
(3) Thirdly, 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.
Notice a composite message of sweetness and bitterness below!
“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 a possible scenario how such a scene would come about, see A Sword from the South!
Joel
A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob 