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Making Unclean Bread

“Now as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and (A)spelt; set them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, 390 days. 10 And your food which you eat shall be [a](B)twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time. 11 The water you drink shall be the sixth part of a [b]hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time. 12 You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human (C)dung.” 13 Then Yahweh said, “Thus will the sons of Israel eat their bread (D)unclean among the nations where I will banish them.” 14 But I said, “(E)Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, I have (F)never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what (G)died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any (H)offensive meat ever entered my mouth.” 15 Then He said to me, “See, I will set for you cow’s dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread.” 16 Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to (I)break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by (J)weight and with anxiety, and they will drink water by (K)measure and in desolation 17 because bread and water will be lacking; and they will be in desolation with one another and (L)rot away in their iniquity.

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 4:10 Approx. 8 oz. or 220 gm, a shekel was approx. 0.4 oz. or 11 gm
  2. Ezekiel 4:11 A hin was approx. 1 gal. or 3.8 l

You, gather some wheat and barley, beans and lentils, and millet and spelt. Put them in a bowl and make your bread from them. Eat it during the three hundred ninety days that you lie on your side. 10 At fixed times you will eat your food by weight, fourteen ounces a day.[a] 11 You will also ration your water by measure, drinking a sixth of a hin[b] at fixed times each day. 12 Eat it like barley bread, and bake it on human excrement while they watch. 13 The Lord says: In this same way the Israelites will eat their unclean bread among the nations where I am scattering them.

14 And I said: “Ah, Lord God! I’ve never been unclean! From my childhood until now I’ve never eaten anything that wasn’t properly slaughtered,[c] and no unclean meat has ever entered my mouth!”

15 He answered me: “Then I’ll let you use cow dung instead of human excrement. You can make your bread over that.”

16 Then he said to me: Human one, I’m destroying the food supply in Jerusalem. They will anxiously ration and eat their food, and in dismay they will dole out and drink their water. 17 When their food and water dwindles away, everyone will be horrified, and they will waste away because of their guilt.

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 4:10 Or twenty shekels
  2. Ezekiel 4:11 A hin is approximately one gallon.
  3. Ezekiel 4:14 Or what died of itself or was torn by wild beasts