Ezekiel 4:9-17
New English Translation
9 “As for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt,[a] put them in a single container, and make food[b] from them for yourself. For the same number of days that you lie on your side—390 days[c]—you will eat it. 10 The food you eat will be eight ounces[d] a day by weight; you must eat it at fixed times.[e] 11 And you must drink water by measure, a pint and a half;[f] you must drink it at fixed times. 12 And you must eat the food as you would a barley cake. You must bake it in front of them over a fire made with dried human excrement.”[g] 13 And the Lord said, “This is how the people of Israel will eat their unclean food among the nations[h] where I will banish them.”
14 And I said, “Ah, Sovereign Lord, I have never been ceremonially defiled before. I have never eaten a carcass or an animal torn by wild beasts; from my youth up, unclean meat[i] has never entered my mouth.”
15 So he said to me, “All right then, I will substitute cow’s manure instead of human excrement. You will cook your food over it.”
16 Then he said to me, “Son of man, I am about to remove the bread supply[j] in Jerusalem. They will eat their bread ration anxiously, and they will drink their water ration in terror 17 because they will lack bread and water. Each one will be terrified, and they will rot for their iniquity.[k]
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- Ezekiel 4:9 sn Wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt. All these foods were common in Mesopotamia where Ezekiel was exiled.
- Ezekiel 4:9 tn Heb “bread.”
- Ezekiel 4:9 tc The LXX reads: “190 days.”
- Ezekiel 4:10 sn Eight ounces (Heb “twenty shekels”). The standards for weighing money varied considerably in the ancient Near East, but the generally accepted weight for the shekel is 11.5 grams (0.4 ounce). This makes the weight of grain about 230 grams here (8 ounces).
- Ezekiel 4:10 tn Heb “from time to time.”
- Ezekiel 4:11 sn A pint and a half [Heb “one-sixth of a hin”]. One-sixth of a hin was a quantity of liquid equal to about 1.3 pints or 0.6 liters.
- Ezekiel 4:12 sn Human waste was to remain outside the camp of the Israelites according to Deut 23:15.
- Ezekiel 4:13 sn Unclean food among the nations. Lands outside of Israel were considered unclean (Josh 22:19; Amos 7:17).
- Ezekiel 4:14 tn The Hebrew term refers to sacrificial meat not eaten by the appropriate time (Lev 7:18; 19:7).
- Ezekiel 4:16 tn Heb, “break the staff of bread.” The bread supply is compared to a staff that one uses for support.
- Ezekiel 4:17 tn Or “in their punishment.” Ezek 4:16-17 alludes to Lev 26:26, 39. The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here, 3:18, 19; 7:13, 16; 18:17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment for iniquity.”
Ezekiel 4:9-17
Expanded Bible
9 “Take wheat, barley, beans, ·small peas [lentils], millet and spelt [C a kind of wheat; all foods common to Babylon, where Ezekiel was exiled], and put them in one ·bowl [vessel; container], and make them into bread for yourself. You will eat it the three hundred ninety days you lie on your side. 10 You will eat ·eight ounces [L twenty shekels] of food ·every day at set times [L from time to time]. 11 You will ·drink [L measure out and drink] ·about two-thirds of a quart [L a sixth of a hin] of water ·every day at set times [L from time to time]. 12 Eat your food as you would eat a barley cake, baking it over human dung where the people can see.” 13 Then the Lord said, “In the same way [L the sons/T children of] Israel will eat unclean food [C ritually; Lev. 11] among the nations where I ·force them to go [drive/banish them].”
14 But I said, “·No [Ah], Lord God! I have never ·been made unclean [defiled myself; C ritually]. From the time I was young until now I’ve never eaten anything that died ·by itself [naturally; C a carcass] or was ·torn [mauled] by ·animals [wild beasts]. ·Unclean [Impure; C ritually] meat has never entered my mouth.”
15 “Very well,” he said. “Then I will give you cow’s dung instead of human dung to use for your fire to bake your bread.”
16 He also said to me, “·Human [T Son of man; 2:1], I am going to cut off the supply of bread to Jerusalem. They will eat the bread that is measured out to them, and they will ·worry as they eat [eat anxiously]. They will drink water that is measured out to them, and they will be in ·shock [terror; dismay] as they drink it. 17 This is because bread and water will be hard to find [C because of the siege] The people will be ·shocked [terrified; dismayed] at the sight of each other, and they will ·become weak [waste away] because of their ·sin [punishment; iniquity].
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