And ye shall do as I have done: ye shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.
Ezekiel's restrained conduct after his personal loss was appointed as a prophetic sign of how the whole people would act when Jerusalem fell. As he had done, so they would do, with his experience foretelling what would come upon them. They would omit the customary gestures of mourning, refusing to cover the lips as mourners commonly did. They would likewise refuse the customary food offered to mourners, and their subdued grief would be bound up with the deaths, captivity, and consequences brought upon them by their own iniquities.
Ezekiel's restrained conduct after his personal loss was appointed as a prophetic sign of how the whole people would act when Jerusalem fell. As he had done, so they would do, with his experience foretelling what would come upon them. They would omit the customary gestures of mourning, refusing to cover the lips as mourners commonly did. They would likewise refuse the customary food offered to mourners, and their subdued grief would be bound up with the deaths, captivity, and consequences brought upon them by their own iniquities.