“And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer,[a] and put them into a single vessel and make your (A)bread from them. (B)During the number of days that you lie on your side, (C)390 days, you shall eat it. 10 And your food that you eat shall be (D)by weight, (E)twenty shekels[b] a day; from day to day[c] you shall eat it. 11 And water you shall drink (F)by measure, the sixth part of a hin;[d] from day to day you shall drink. 12 And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it (G)in their sight on human dung.” 13 And the Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat (H)their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.” 14 Then I said, (I)“Ah, Lord God! Behold, I have never defiled myself.[e] (J)From my youth up till now I have never eaten (K)what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has (L)tainted meat come into my mouth.” 15 Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.” 16 Moreover, he said to me, (M)“Son of man, behold, (N)I will break the supply[f] of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread (O)by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water (P)by measure and in dismay. 17 I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and (Q)look at one another in dismay, and (R)rot away because of their punishment.

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 4:9 A type of wheat
  2. Ezekiel 4:10 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams
  3. Ezekiel 4:10 Or at a set time daily; also verse 11
  4. Ezekiel 4:11 A hin was about 4 quarts or 3.5 liters
  5. Ezekiel 4:14 Hebrew my soul (or throat) has never been made unclean
  6. Ezekiel 4:16 Hebrew staff

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