Introduction
In this chapter, the Holy One, blessed be He, commands Yechezkel to perform a series of symbolic sign-actions depicting the siege and destruction of Jerusalem: engraving the city onto a brick, erecting a siege tower and rampart against it, lying on his left side and on his right side corresponding to the years of iniquity, and preparing mixed bread to be eaten by weight and water by measure. In the section before us, we continue from the command to lie on his right side for forty days, moving on to the sign of the bread and water and the prophet's protest against eating defiled bread.
Forty Days on the Right Side
וְכִלִּיתָ אֶת אֵלֶּה וְשָׁכַבְתָּ עַל צִדְּךָ הַיְמָנִי שֵׁנִית וְנָשָׂאתָ אֶת עֲוֺן בֵּית יְהוּדָה אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם יוֹם לַשָּׁנָה יוֹם לַשָּׁנָה נְתַתִּיו לָךְ׃ - "And when you have completed these, you shall lie on your right side a second time, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days; a day for each year, a day for each year have I appointed it for you."
After you finish the 390 days, the Holy One, blessed be He, tells him, you shall lie an additional forty days, this time on your right side. Rashi explains: This teaches that the house of Judah sinned for forty years from the time the Ten Tribes were exiled until Jerusalem was destroyed. The intent is up to the point in time at which the prophet now stands, by which point forty years had elapsed. It follows, then, that in addition to the 390 years of claim against Samaria and the totality of Israel, an additional forty years were added for the sin of Judah alone.
The calculation is as follows: twenty-two years of Menasheh. From where do we know twenty-two? This is not stated explicitly, but is learned from what Scripture says of him, "according to all that Achav did", and Achav reigned twenty-two years. Another two years of Amon, who was intensely wicked - having relations with his own mother and worse - bringing the total to twenty-four. An additional eleven years of Yehoyakim makes thirty-five. And this prophecy was conveyed to Yechezkel in the fifth year of Tzidkiyahu, who had already reigned five years, giving you forty. The grand total is thus 430 years: 390 plus forty.
The Reckoning of the Seventy Years of Exile Corresponding to Seventy Shemitah Cycles
Here Rashi lays out the calculation explaining how we arrive at the tradition, stated in several places, that Israel went into exile for seventy years because they neglected seventy Shemitah years. Rashi explains: After this prophecy, they remained an additional six years until the destruction, so from 430 we reach 436. Calculate as follows: this spans eight Yovel cycles plus thirty-six years. Eight Yovel cycles are four hundred years, within which there are eight times seven Shemitah years, meaning fifty-six Shemitot. Add to this eight Yovel years, for in addition to observing Shemitah one must also observe the Yovel - Shemitah being the forty-ninth year and the next year being the fiftieth, which is the Yovel - and you have sixty-four.
This accounts for the four-hundred-year span. But we noted that there were 436 years. From the thirty-six, set aside one year and thirty-five remain, which equals seven times five, containing another five Shemitot. That brings us to sixty-nine Shemitot. We are still missing one. What about that missing one? The final Yovel year was counted against them as iniquity, since due to their sin they were exiled before reaching it and never attained that Yovel at all. This gives you seventy years in which Israel failed to observe the sabbatical release, and therefore they were exiled for seventy years to fulfill what is stated: "Then shall the land be paid her sabbaths, all the days of its desolation" - all the days it was meant to lie fallow, it shall now be desolate. During the seventy years of our exile, the land lay desolate, taking upon itself the rest that we were commanded to grant it. And this is what is stated at the conclusion of Divrei HaYamim: "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 seventy years."
Why the Right Side
Why was he commanded specifically to lie on his right side? Rashi explains: Judah is situated in the south of the Land of Israel; just as Samaria is to the north, which corresponds to the left, so with Judah it is fitting to designate the right side, whereas for Samaria he lay on his left side.
The Malbim explains differently. Here too he is commanded to bear the iniquity of Judah for forty days corresponding to forty years, but these are not the forty years during which Judah sinned as Rashi holds, but rather corresponding to the forty years from when Jeremiah began prophesying about the destruction. Jeremiah began prophesying from the thirteenth year of Yoshiyahu until the destruction, from which time the decree was sealed that the Temple would be destroyed, and he warned them daily for forty years. Here then are forty years of warning, corresponding to which he was to lie on his right side. And although according to this calculation the forty years are already included within the 390 and are not separate from them, the Malbim explains that a distinction must be made between them: the 390 years represent a communal iniquity shared by all, both the exiles of Samaria and Judah who remained here; however, the iniquity of refusing to heed Jeremiah's rebuke was a specific sin of Judah alone, for Samaria had already been exiled and the warning did not apply to them. Therefore, it was counted separately through lying on the right side.
And why the right side? The Malbim follows his approach: here Hashem revealed His right hand and the arm of His strength upon them and sent them prophets, and they were guided by the conduct of the right, which is the conduct of kindness. Therefore, a separate accounting of forty years was necessary corresponding to this.
"I Have Assigned It to You" - The Prophet's Merit
However, a question arises here. Regarding the 390 days, we explained why the years were reckoned as days - because there was a point of merit in their favor, as they received no rebuke and Hashem dealt with them according to the natural order; and this applied to the Ten Tribes. But regarding the tribes of Yehudah and Binyamin, this point of merit does not apply, and seemingly he should have been told, "Lie on your right side for forty years." Why, then, did He say "a day for each year"? The Malbim explains: on account of the prophet's own merit, as he endures the affliction. From here it is evident, according to the Malbim, that the command "lie on your right side" was meant literally, not as a prophetic vision or metaphor. By enduring for forty days the suffering warranted by their deeds, he atones for them, and thus the Holy One, Blessed be He, is satisfied with forty days instead of forty years.
And from where does the Malbim derive this? From the phrasing of the verse, "a day for each year, a day for each year, I have assigned it to you" - because of you, in your merit, through you; your merit is what causes it to be merely a day for each year.
A Bared Arm Against the Siege of Jerusalem
וְאֶל מְצוֹר יְרוּשָׁלַיִם תָּכִין פָּנֶיךָ וּזְרֹעֲךָ חֲשׂוּפָה וְנִבֵּאתָ עָלֶיהָ׃ - "And toward the siege of Jerusalem you shall set your face, with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against it."
Now He tells him to set his face toward the brick upon which he engraved Jerusalem: while lying on your left side the brick will face you, and likewise while lying on your right side. "With your arm bared" - the commentators explain that a bared arm denotes an arm readied for battle. When someone wishes to strike and fight with force, his garment hinders him, so he pulls the sleeve up, freeing his arm to move more swiftly; especially in their times, when garments were heavy and cumbersome, fighting required pulling up the sleeve. This is a sign and portent of Nevuchadnezzar coming to wage war against them, as the bared arm signifies battle. "And you shall prophesy against it" - while you enact this siege upon the city with all the symbolism we have seen, with the siege wall, the ramparts around it, and the iron plate, you shall prophesy and speak words of rebuke to them, telling the people that the city will be captured if they do not repent.
The Malbim explains differently from Rashi, who held that the prophet's face was directed toward the brick at all times. According to the Malbim, the brick was placed on his left side, and as long as he was lying on his left side, the brick was before him, as stated, "and set your face toward it." However, then, while lying on his left side, he was not told to bare his arm. Why? Because then he was prophesying concerning the Ten Tribes, and to them Hashem had indeed not bared His arm: He barely sent them prophets and did not lead them with the conduct of the right, which is the conduct of kindness, abundance, and miraculous providence - and this is symbolized by the left side. In contrast, during the final forty years, in which he lies on his right side and the brick is placed to his right, he sets his face toward the siege of Jerusalem with his arm bared and prophesies against it, to signal to them: Here the Holy One, Blessed be He, bared His right hand for you, showered you with abundance, performed acts of kindness for you, and gave you His prophets to rebuke you, yet you still did not repent. The divine grievance here is far more severe, and therefore he was required to bare his right arm and turn his face toward the right side.
"I Have Put Cords Upon You"
וְהִנֵּה נָתַתִּי עָלֶיךָ עֲבוֹתִים וְלֹא תֵהָפֵךְ מִצִּדְּךָ אֶל צִדֶּךָ עַד כַּלּוֹתְךָ יְמֵי מְצוּרֶךָ׃ - "And behold, I have put cords upon you, and you shall not turn from side to side until you have completed the days of your siege."
Rashi explains: the decree of My commandment shall be as binding upon you as though you were bound with cords, so that you do not turn from side to side. According to Rashi, this is a metaphor - not literal cords, but rather, since I have commanded you to lie on your left side and afterward on your right side, it is as though I have bound you so that you do not change sides. In other words, you are cautioned to fulfill My commandment in its entirety, precisely as I have commanded you. And until when? "Until you have completed the days of your siege," until you fulfill the days during which I commanded you to simulate a siege. And why does the verse write metzurecha ("your sieges") in the plural form? The Malbim explains: because we are speaking here of two kinds of sieges - a siege of 390 days and a siege of forty days; lying on the left side and lying on the right side. The Malbim also explains that "I have put cords upon you" means that he was bound and restricted in two respects: first, not to leave his house; and second, not to turn from right to left.
The Mixed-Grain Bread - An Allusion to Siege Rations
וְאַתָּה קַח לְךָ חִטִּין וּשְׂעֹרִים וּפוֹל וַעֲדָשִׁים וְדֹחַן וְכֻסְּמִים וְנָתַתָּה אוֹתָם בִּכְלִי אֶחָד וְעָשִׂיתָ אוֹתָם לְךָ לְלָחֶם מִסְפַּר הַיָּמִים אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה שׁוֹכֵב עַל צִדְּךָ שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת וְתִשְׁעִים יוֹם תֹּאכְלֶנּוּ׃ - "And you, take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and place them into one vessel, and make them into bread for yourself; according to the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, shall you eat it."
After seeing an allusion to what will happen in the city and an allusion to the siege, he is now commanded to create an allusion to the food they will eat during the siege. First, "take for yourself" means prepare and stockpile food, for since there will be a siege, you will need a large amount of food for its duration. Second, "and place them into one vessel" - the wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, all of which, apart from the wheat and barley, are types of legumes, he is to place together into a single vessel. What does this symbolize? That the bread will not be pure and unadulterated. When bread is pure, people eat wheat bread; when it is of lesser quality, they eat barley bread, which is less refined; but when the bread is entirely composed of a mixture of wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, this shows that the bread is deficient, that there is no pure bread at all. This illustrates the severity of the siege: you will have nothing to eat except bread made from a hodgepodge of different grains.
Furthermore: "and make them into bread for yourself; according to the number of days that you lie on your side" - he is to prepare bread for three hundred and ninety days, even though we also saw an additional forty days, because here the text refers to the three hundred and ninety days that the king of Babylon encamped against Jerusalem. The Malbim calculates the timeline: on the tenth day of the tenth month, the Tenth of Tevet, in the ninth year of Tzidkiyahu, the siege began, and he captured the city at the end of the fourth month in the eleventh year of his reign, on the seventh or ninth of the month. The days of the siege lasted eighteen months, as explained in Yirmiyahu. In the middle of the siege, the king of Babylon temporarily left Jerusalem on account of Pharaoh's army, having heard that Pharaoh was advancing against him and going out to fight him, but he warned them to keep in mind that he would return; apparently, this was in the tenth year of Tzidkiyahu's reign. When he returned to resume the siege, it was at the beginning of Iyar, and from that point until the Ninth of Tammuz in the year of the destruction, there were four hundred and thirty days.
When Nevuchadnetzar departed the city, they prepared bread for the days of the siege, but they only managed to prepare enough for three hundred and ninety days - forty days short. Why did they not prepare more? Because they could not find any more; they prepared according to the amount of wheat, millet, beans, and lentils available in the vicinity, and they found nothing beyond that. This is what He meant by saying, "according to the number of days that you lie," three hundred and ninety days: matching the number of days you lie on your side, so will be the amount of bread they manage to prepare. It follows that during the final forty days of the siege, they were already in complete starvation. Until then, they ate from the bread prepared for three hundred and ninety days, but the siege lasted four hundred and thirty days, and in the last forty days they had nothing left to eat, dying of famine, pestilence, and the sword inside the city until the city walls were breached, as recorded in Yirmiyahu chapter 21, verse 4, and elsewhere. Accordingly, for three hundred and ninety days they ate by weight - that is, rationed by exact measure, weighing out precisely how much each person would receive so the bread would not run out quickly; but once those three hundred and ninety days passed, not even rationed bread was left.
Eating by Weight and One Meal a Day
וּמַאֲכָלְךָ אֲשֶׁר תֹּאכְלֶנּוּ בְּמִשְׁקוֹל עֶשְׂרִים שֶׁקֶל לַיּוֹם מֵעֵת עַד עֵת תֹּאכְלֶנּוּ׃ - "And your food that you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time you shall eat it."
This comes to symbolize the siege and the fact that they would eat their bread by weight. "By weight" (bemishkol) - the Radak notes that this word follows the grammatical form of mizmor (from zemer, song); so too here, mishkol is derived from mishkal (weight). The meaning is that due to the famine they would eat their food strictly by weight, and they would eat only once a day. Their custom was generally to eat two meals a day, morning and evening, and on Shabbat to eat three to make it distinct; but here He tells him that there would be only one meal a day out of extreme scarcity: "from time to time you shall eat it," eating only once a day because of the shortage of bread. Similarly, they drank water by measure, in strict rations. All of this was during the first three hundred and ninety days; after that, their deprivation grew even more severe, as even the twenty shekels a day - which was their daily ration of bread - would no longer be available to them.
Water by Measure and a Sixth of a Hin
וּמַיִם בִּמְשׂוּרָה תִשְׁתֶּה שִׁשִּׁית הַהִין מֵעֵת עַד עֵת תִּשְׁתֶּה׃ - "And water by measure shall you drink, a sixth of a hin; from time to time shall you drink."
"By measure" (bimeshurah) - Chazal explain that a meshurah is a tiny measure, one-thirtieth of a log, which is about eleven and a half cubic centimeters (cc). In water, cubic centimeters and grams are equivalent, so this amounts to about eleven and a half grams of water. Yet immediately afterward the verse states, "a sixth of a hin," which is a far larger amount: a hin is twelve log, and a sixth of a hin is two log, which equals six hundred and ninety cc, nearly seven hundred grams of water (cc being a measure of volume and grams of weight). First you spoke of eleven and a half grams, and now nearly seven hundred grams! The Radak resolves this by explaining that the prophet was allotted a total quantity of six hundred and ninety cc per day, but how was he to drink it? In a meshurah - each time taking only a tiny sip of about eleven grams. Thus there is no contradiction: you shall drink water in small measures, and how much will you have in total for the day? A sixth of a hin, from one designated time to the next. All of this symbolizes the tremendous thirst and hunger that would plague them in Jerusalem during the siege, from the ninth year of Tzidkiyahu until the eleventh year.
Barley Cake
וְעֻגַת שְׂעֹרִים תֹּאכְלֶנָּה וְהִיא בְּגֶלְלֵי צֵאַת הָאָדָם תְּעֻגֶנָה לְעֵינֵיהֶם׃ - "And you shall eat it as barley cake, and you shall bake it with dung of human excrement before their eyes."
Rashi explains: Its preparation and appearance are coarse like the preparation of barley bread, not pleasing like the preparation of a wheat cake. Anyone who has seen health bread, sprouted bread, and the like cannot argue with the fact that challah looks much nicer - its preparation is fine, glossy, and shaped more attractively. Even though today these types of bread are considered boutique breads and health breads and are expensive, nevertheless in terms of aesthetic excellence one sees that they are not refined breads, and certainly in terms of taste, refined bread and challah taste far superior to barley bread. And this is what the verse means by "And as a barley cake you shall eat it": it is true that He is speaking of the mixture of all the grains - wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt - but its preparation will not be pleasing like that of wheat bread, but coarse like the preparation of barley bread.
Radak explains differently: It is as if the verse wrote, "And as a barley cake you shall eat it" - that you will eat this mixed cake as if it were a plain barley cake without all these mixtures. For a barley cake is eaten with more appetite than a cake in which many types of legumes have been mixed, as such a mixture indicates its inferiority; but because you will be starving, you will eat it with such eagerness as if it were a barley cake. And if you ask, if Scripture wished to extol the hunger, it should have gone further and said "like a wheat cake", which would be the ultimate image of how starved one would be - that he would eat it as though it were a special challah - Radak answers that it does not exaggerate to such an extent, for it is implausible that a mixed concoction would be eaten with the appetite reserved for pure wheat cake alone. Therefore, it said that he would eat it with enthusiasm as if it were a barley cake.
What is an "Ugah"?
Incidentally, when speaking of an ugah here, the intention is not what we call a cake today, which is baked goods made with sugar, cocoa, and so forth. In their day, an ugah meant a round loaf: an ugat retzafim is a loaf baked on coals - retzafim being like reshafim (hot coals) - similar to a chararah (a flat cake baked on embers). And why is it called an ugah? Because ugah means a circle, as in the expression "he drew a circle (ag ugah) and stood inside it", and just as in the nursery rhyme "Ugah, ugah, let us dance in a circle" - some think they are singing about a cake there, but it really means a circle, yet today people are unfamiliar with the phrase ag ugah and assume it refers to some kind of pancake! And we have already discussed that even the word challah comes from this root, from roundness, like machol (a round dance), which means a circle. It is very likely that it refers to something like the pita bread made by Arabs, where the bread is round, or a loaf of challah that was round. Why? Because when one takes a piece of dough, pinches it off, and places it on a flat surface, it naturally becomes round on its own. Today people make all kinds of shapes, but originally a challah was meant to be round, which is why both challah and ugah derive from words for circle and dance.
"With Human Dung"
This means that this cake would be baked using human dung as fuel. For they used to bake in a tabun oven and use various fuels: sometimes wood, sometimes date pits or olive pits and the like, and sometimes, when there was no other fuel, they would also bake using animal dung. Here, however, He tells him that the cake would be so repulsive that it would be baked with human dung. Animal dung is not as loathsome and foul - smelling - certainly no one craves it, but it is not repulsive like human waste. A human being, on the other hand, produces foul - smelling waste: "He who increases knowledge increases sorrow" (Kohelet 1:18), and the Gemara explains that from the time an infant develops understanding and eats grain, his excrement begins to produce a foul odor. The verse comes to convey just how degraded the situation would be, to the point that the cake would be baked over human excrement.
"You shall bake it before their eyes" (te'ugenah le'eineihem) - Radak notes that some wish to say this addresses the prophet himself, meaning that you shall prepare the cake before their eyes. However, this is difficult to maintain, because if so, Scripture should have said te'ugennah with a dagesh in the nun, whereas here it is written with a rapheh nun. Therefore, its meaning is that the women shall bake it before their eyes; this cake would be prepared and baked right before the eyes of the people. For this entire prophecy comes to depict what the people would endure during the siege; there is a message here for the people, and it had to be done before their eyes so that they would understand.
Animal Food and Human Defilement - The Malbim's Explanation
The Malbim explains that at the conclusion of the days of the siege, He commands him first of all to eat a barley cake. Barley is animal food, alluding to the days of exile that would follow the end of the siege: You will eat animal food, because you abandoned the form of an Israelite and turned backward to become like mute beasts. Who eats barley? Donkeys. As it were, you degraded yourselves to the level of beasts, and therefore when you go into exile among the nations, you will eat animal food there.
And based on this, it is explained that this is the deeper meaning behind Israel offering the Omer from barley on the day after Pesach, while the wheat offering - the Two Loaves (Shtei HaLechem) - was brought on Shavuot. Why is one from barley and the other from wheat? Because when we left Egypt, we had not yet received the Torah, and our food was animal food, as if we ate barley, since we were still on the level of beasts. And when did we merit the true stature of man? When we arrived at the Revelation at Mount Sinai, were considered children of Hashem, and received the Torah. From that point on, our food became wheat, and on Shavuot the Two Loaves are brought from wheat. Thus, barley food signifies bestiality, and therefore he was to eat a barley cake to indicate that they had degraded to the level of animals and abandoned the stature of an Israelite.
Second, He instructs him to bake the cake over human excrement, to show them that although their food is animal fodder, their waste and defilement remain human, for their impurity is foul - smelling, since they sinned with their speaking soul and defiled it. In other words, there are two distinct degradations here. For had He only said that we fell to the level of animals, an animal indeed has limitations, but it also has an advantage: an animal never contracts ritual impurity during its lifetime. The only creature in the world that can contract ritual impurity while alive is man; no other living creature contracts impurity in life, and at most they can transmit impurity upon death, such as an animal carcass (neveilah) which transmits impurity under certain conditions (and even that depends on how it was slaughtered), or a creeping creature (sheretz) which defiles upon death, not in life. A human being, however, can contract the most severe defilement: neither an animal nor a creeping creature reaches the pinnacle of defilement, which is the primary source of all impurity (Avi Avot HaTumah) - a human corpse. This level does not exist with a creeping creature or a carcass.
It turns out, then, that had we descended merely to the level of an animal, there would still have been an advantage in this, since an animal's impurity is relatively mild - it does not contract defilement in life, nor does it reach the ultimate degree of defilement in death. The verse tells you: No, know that the negative liability of man remains with you. "With the dung of human excrement" - to teach that human waste is foul, meaning that you have retained the vulnerabilities of an Israelite, who contracts defilement in life and defiles after death with the most severe impurity. Put simply: you did not descend to the level of a beast in the fullest sense such that you might enjoy its advantage; rather, you retained the vulnerabilities of the human condition, for the defining quality of man is the soul, and you have defiled that soul. This is expressed in the foul human excrement and the impure manner of eating, demonstrating that they defiled their very souls.
"Even so shall the Children of Israel eat their bread unclean"
וַיֹּאמֶר ה' כָּכָה יֹאכְלוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת לַחְמָם טָמֵא בַּגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר אַדִּיחֵם שָׁם׃ - And Hashem said: "Even so shall the Children of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations where I will banish them."
How does "unclean" apply here, and what defilement is present here? Rashi explains: *tamei* means loathsome and repulsive. Radak explains that in their exile among the nations, they will be unable to protect their food from ritual defilement and will not be able to eat with purity. The Malbim explains that two parables were presented here, and the second parable is explained first, followed by the first; therefore, Scripture begins here with the explanation of the final parable of the barley cake, saying to him: Know that in the days of their exile among the nations, they will eat their bread - food fit for beasts - which will be defiled by the impurity of the nations.
The Prophet's Protest
וָאֹמַר אֲהָהּ אֲדֹנָי ה' הִנֵּה נַפְשִׁי לֹא מְטֻמָּאָה וּנְבֵלָה וּטְרֵפָה לֹא אָכַלְתִּי מִנְּעוּרַי וְעַד עַתָּה וְלֹא בָא בְּפִי בְּשַׂר פִּגּוּל׃ - Then I said: "Ah, Lord Hashem! Behold, my soul has not been defiled; from my youth until now I have not eaten of a carcass or that which is torn of beasts, neither has there come abominable flesh into my mouth."
Immediately the prophet protests and says: How is it possible that You, Hashem, demand such a thing of me, to eat defiled bread? After all, my soul has not been defiled! Radak explains: Neither my soul nor my body is defiled - neither my soul from evil thoughts, nor my body from defiled food.
Yet this is puzzling: is this what the prophet praises himself for, that from his youth until now he has not eaten *nevelah* (an unslaughtered carcass) or *tereifah* (torn meat), and no *piggul* (abominable sacrificial meat) entered his mouth? Does any ordinary Jew eat *nevelah*, *tereifah*, or *piggul*? There are several explanations for this. One explanation is that of Radak: Kohanim are cautioned against *nevelot* and *tereifot* even more strictly than the rest of Israel, because these carry an impurity unique to them, as it says, "The Kohanim shall not eat of anything that dies of itself, or is torn, to defile themselves therewith." Not that it is permitted to other Israelites, but rather that Kohanim bear a greater prohibition, for they must preserve their sanctity at a higher standard. And he says: Even from my youth I was meticulous about purity, and no *piggul* meat - concerning which Kohanim are especially warned - ever entered my mouth; how then can You tell me to eat my bread prepared with something defiled and loathsome? Furthermore, Chazal expound "my soul has not been defiled" - I did not harbor improper thoughts by day and come to defilement at night, just as Chazal warn that a person must not contemplate matters of immorality by day lest he come, Heaven forbid, to nocturnal emission at night.
In summary:
In this part of the chapter, we saw the command to lie for forty days on the right side: according to Rashi, corresponding to the forty years of Judah's sin from the exile of the Ten Tribes until the Destruction; and according to the Malbim, corresponding to the forty years of Jeremiah's rebuke, during which the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed His right hand and sent prophets, yet they did not repent. From here we learned the calculation of the seventy Shemittah and Yovel cycles for which we were exiled for seventy years, and the inner meaning of "I have assigned it to you" - that the merit of the prophet's suffering sweetened the strict judgment into a day for a year. Afterwards, we saw the sign-acts of the food: the mixed-grain bread indicating the degradation of food during the siege; eating by weight and drinking by measure indicating famine and thirst; and the barley bread baked over human dung - animal food on the one hand, and human defilement on the other, signifying that not only did they descend from the stature of an Israelite to the level of a beast, but they also retained the defect of man who defiles his soul. And against all of this, the prophet protests: "My soul has not been defiled," thereby awakening Heavenly mercy.