יחזקאל, פרק כ״ד, פסוק ב׳

A divine command given to a prophet living far from his homeland carries dramatic historical weight, serving as a precise record of a distant disaster. While living in exile in Babylon, Ezekiel receives an instruction from God to document the exact date the siege on Jerusalem begins.

God demands maximum precision in this documentation. The instruction requires recording both the day of the week and the exact date of the month, which is the tenth of Tevet [מלבי״ם, מצודת דוד, רד״ק]. This emphasis highlights the core essence of the event [מצודת ציון] and underscores the powerful force of that specific day [מלבי״ם]. On this exact date, the king of Babylon drew near with his army, constructed a siege wall around Jerusalem, and initiated the blockade [רש״י, רד״ק, מצודת ציון, ביאור שטיינזלץ].

The requirement to immediately write down the date, despite being hundreds of miles away in Babylon, is designed to establish the prophet's credibility. The primary approach among commentators is that this written record serves as irrefutable proof. When messengers eventually arrive from Jerusalem and confirm that the siege began on that exact documented day, the exiled community will recognize Ezekiel as a true prophet speaking in the name of God. Consequently, they will stop listening to the false prophets who had been feeding them empty hopes [מצודת דוד, רד״ק, חומת אנך]. Furthermore, this act of recording grants the day lasting historical significance for future generations [ביאור שטיינזלץ].

Beyond serving as prophetic proof, the beginning of the siege carries an element of divine kindness. The very fact that the city endured a prolonged blockade was intended to give its inhabitants time to be awakened by fear and repent before the ultimate destruction occurred [חומת אנך]. Additionally, the duration of the siege holds deep symbolic meaning. The exact number of days the city remained under attack before its walls were breached corresponds perfectly to the number of years the Israelites lived as a free nation, stretching from the Exodus from Egypt until the fall of the Temple [מלבי״ם].