Drawing

Drawing appears in scripture as a prophetic sign-act commanded to Ezekiel: a sketch of Jerusalem on a clay tile, used to stage the coming siege.

A city on a tile

The command opens the cycle of sign-acts that follow Ezekiel's first vision. Yahweh tells the prophet to take a soft clay tile, set it down, and inscribe Jerusalem on its surface: "You also, Son of Man, take for yourself a tile, and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem" (Eze 4:1). The drawing is not decorative. It becomes the field on which Ezekiel will then act out the siege, the encampment, and the battering rams against the city he has just rendered.