4:4 Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the {b} house of Israel upon it: [according] to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.
(b) By this he represented the idolatry and sin of the ten tribes (for Samaria was on his left hand from Babylon) and how they had remained in it three hundred and ninety years.
4:4 Lay - Take upon thee the representation of their guilt and punishment. House of Israel - The ten tribes. The number - By this thou shalt intimate how long I have borne with their sins, and how long they shall bear their punishment.
4:1-8 The prophet was to represent the siege of Jerusalem by signs. He was to lie on his left side for a number of days, supposed to be equal to the years from the establishment of idolatry. All that the prophet sets before the children of his people, about the destruction of Jerusalem, is to show that sin is the provoking cause of the ruin of that once flourishing city.
