Jerusalem is to be represented on a brick, and the brick itself is to be placed before the prophet, so that when it looks like Jerusalem in the dust, it can portray the whole blockade against it.

Some things, however, ought to be reproved strongly, so that when a fault is not recognized by the one who has committed it, he may be made aware of its gravity by verbal reproof, or when anyone glosses over an evil that he has perpetrated, he may be led by the harshness of his censure to entertain grave fears of its effects on him. For indeed it is the duty of a ruler to show by the voice of preaching the glory of our heavenly country, to disclose what great temptations of the old enemy are lurking in this life’s journey, and to correct with zealous harshness such evils among those who are under his sway that should not be gently borne with, lest, in being too little incensed against such faults, he himself be held guilty of all faults.

When we know that one thing is accomplished according to history and we recognize that another lacks any reason according to history, we are to hold both in holy Scripture, since we are to believe that the siege of Jerusalem, which according to the meaning of the words happened later, is prefigured in the words and deeds of the prophet, and yet another siege, an inward one, is meant by it.

Every teacher, when he accepts any earthly hearer of the teaching of the heavenly words, takes a brick.

A teacher ought to come to know which temptations beset the progressing soul in order that he may be able to prepare it to be on its guard against the traps of the evil spirit.

An iron plate, which is meant to be the image of the wall between the prophet and the city, represents the anger of God in all its fullness, which does not diminish as a result of any prayers, nor does it bend toward mercy in any way.

Why is it that the prophet places this pan between himself and the city as a wall of iron? The meaning is that this strong zeal now at work in the mind of the teacher will be a witness on the day of the last judgment between him and the soul for which he is zealous against vices. Even if he who is taught is unwilling to hear, yet the teacher, by reason of the zeal that he exhibits, will not be answerable for the negligence of his hearers.

The teacher lays siege against the soul of the hearer when he proclaims that traps of temptations may be laid in everything that happens in this life, so that when the mind is everywhere fearful, everywhere circumspect, the more timidly it lives, the more vigilant it will be.

Just as the house of Israel physically underwent a siege, so each soul that now begins to serve almighty God perceives the traps the evil spirits are laying siege to it.

Ezekiel was to lie down on his right side for 40 days and 150 on his left, to dig through a wall and flee, portraying in himself the captivity. Another time Ezekiel is to sharpen a sword to a point, shave his head with it and divide the hair four ways and assign a part here, a part there, without listing it all.^[1] The ruler of the universe ordered each of these things to be done so that by the strangeness of this spectacle he might gather those who would not be persuaded by speech or give an ear to prophecy and so dispose them to hear the divine oracles…. So, just as the God of the universe providentially ordered each one of these things to be done for the good of those who live carelessly, so he arranged this extraordinary novelty to draw everyone by its strangeness to the spectacle and make his counsel persuasive to those who come. For the novelty of the spectacle is a reliable guarantee of the instruction it can give, and whoever comes to the spectacle leaves instructed in divine matters.