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Artwork for Set Thy Face against the City

Ezekiel 4:1-5:17

Set Thy Face against the City

Lyrics · Ezekiel

Set Thy Face against the City

Ezekiel 4:1-5:17

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About this song

About this song

This song belongs to the Ezekiel collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book
Ezekiel
Collection
Ezekiel
Musical styles
Uncategorized
[Processional Chant] Set thy face against the city, Let the sign outlast refusal to hear. A city was drawn on a brick in the dust, [Verse 1] Rams at the wall and an iron face between. Days became years on the prophet’s side, Bread weighed by measure and water by line. Left side, right side, the burden remained, [Chorus] Set thy face against the city, Let the sign outlast refusal to hear. A body became calendar, hunger, and chain. Then hair met the balance, the flame, and the blade, [Silence] Some to the wind and a few in the hem. [Verse 2] No gesture was random, no theater for fame, Each motion translated the coming siege. The brick did not bleed, but the people would know, [Final Chorus] Set thy face against the city, Let the sign outlast refusal to hear. A sign can be silent and still thunder judgment.

About the passage

Ezekiel 4: Jerusalem besieged on a tile

Jerusalem's siege is reduced to objects small enough to place before Ezekiel and hardships personal enough to enter his own body. A tile becomes the city, military works surround it, and an iron pan stands as a hard barrier while the prophet sets his face against the model. Then time itself becomes part of the sign as Ezekiel bears Israel and Judah's iniquity in appointed days representing years. Food brings the message still closer. A mixture of grains and legumes sounds abundant until bread and water are weighed into anxious rations, and the fuel for cooking introduces the defilement associated with exile. Ezekiel's protest over ritual pollution receives a real concession, but the altered fuel does not change the announced deprivation. The Book of Ezekiel makes the point through ordinary necessities: bread and water may remain present while losing their power to signify security.

Study Ezekiel 4 in depth

Ezekiel 5: Jerusalem weighed out in a barber’s scales

A razor and a set of balances turn Ezekiel's hair into a measured representation of Jerusalem's fate. One portion burns, one is struck with the sword, and one is scattered, yet the sword follows even the scattered. A few hairs are kept in the prophet's garment, but even that preserved handful is not treated as automatically untouchable. The explanation then widens from sign to indictment. Jerusalem's position among the nations has made its rebellion more visible, not less accountable, and the sanctuary itself becomes part of the charge because it has been defiled. Famine, pestilence, sword, scattering, beasts, and bloodshed attack every ordinary source of continuity. The Book of Ezekiel ends the chapter by turning surrounding nations into witnesses. The city once placed conspicuously among them will now become a visible warning when its supposed privilege proves unable to cancel its conduct.

Study Ezekiel 5 in depth