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Ezekiel 4:13

in Ezekiel 4

Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And Jehovah said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations whither I will drive them.

KJV

And the Lord said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.

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This verse in Ezekiel 4

Commentary

7 notes on this verse
The ceremonial ordinances in relation to food were intended to keep the nation free from idolatrous usages; everywhere among the pagan idol feasts formed a leading part in their religious services, and idol meats were partaken of in common life. Dispersion among the Gentiles must have exposed the Jews to much which they regarded as common and unclean. In Ezekiel’s case there was a mitigation Eze 4:15 of the defilement, but still legal defilement remained, and the chosen people in exile were subjected to it as to a degradation.

This site's exposition

as you would a barley cake

on Ezekiel 4:12-13

Ezekiel is to eat the bread “as you would a barley cake,” baked “over dried human excrement in the sight of the people.” The fuel makes the food unclean. So the sign shows exile as a place where Israel could no longer keep the law’s line between clean and unclean.

This site's exposition

their defiled bread among the nations

The LORD names the meaning of the sign. Israel will eat defiled bread among the nations where He will banish them. Albert Barnes explains that the food laws kept the nation apart from idol feasts, and exile would press them into what they counted unclean.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Ezekiel · Written before 420.

proposed

(Verse 13 and following) And the Lord said: Thus will the sons of Israel eat their polluted bread among the nations to which I will drive them out. And I said, ah, ah, ah, O Lord God: Behold, my soul is not polluted, and I have not eaten carrion or torn flesh from beasts from my youth until now, and all unclean flesh has not entered into my mouth. And he said to me: Behold, I have given you cow dung instead of human dung, and you shall make your bread with it.

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

), to eat meat made up by Gentile hands otherwise than according to the law of the Jewish church, which they were always taught to call defiled, and which they would have as great an aversion to as a man would have to bread prepared with dung, that is (as perhaps it may be understood) kneaded and moulded with dung.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

And the Lord said, even thus shall the children of Israel,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

The prophet is here ordered to represent to himself and others by signs which would be proper and powerful to strike the fancy and to affect the mind, the siege of Jerusalem; and this amounted to a prediction. He was ordered to engrave a draught of Jerusalem upon a tile,

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

And as barley cakes you shall eat it Rolled out in a repulsive manner like the rolling of barley, not nicely like the rolling out of a wheat cake.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Ezekiel 4:12:1, via Sefaria, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

13 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֹּ֣אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • יְהוָ֔הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • כָּ֣כָהthus

    kakhahH3602 →

  • יֹאכְל֧וּthey will eat

    yokheluH398 →810 times

  • בְנֵֽי־[the] people of

    venei-H1121 →4930 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֛לIsrael

    yisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • לַחְמָ֖םbread their

    lachmamH3899 →298 times

  • טָמֵ֑אunclean

    tame'H2931 →88 times

  • בַּגּוֹיִ֕םamong the nations

    bagoyimH1471 →561 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֥רwhere

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • אַדִּיחֵ֖םI will banish them

    ʾadichemH5080 →55 times

  • שָֽׁם׃there

    shamH8033 →834 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

5 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Hosea 9:3They will not remain in the land of the LORD; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.10 worksAmos 7:17Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be divided by a measuring line, and you yourself will die on pagan soil. And Israel will surely go into exile, away from their homeland.’”5 worksEzekiel 4:9But take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. This is what you are to eat during the 390 days you lie on your side.5 worksDaniel 1:8But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or wine. So he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself.4 works2 Kings 18:27But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words only to you and your master, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”2 works

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Daniel 1:8

    But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or wine. So he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself.

    it leads to

    • Psalms 141:4

      Do not let my heart be drawn to any evil thing or take part in works of wickedness with men who do iniquity; let me not feast on their delicacies.

    • Leviticus 11:45–47

      For I am the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt so that I would be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.

    • Ezekiel 4:13–14

      Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.”

    • 1 Corinthians 10:18–21

      Consider the people of Israel: Are not those who eat the sacrifices fellow partakers in the altar?

    • 1 Corinthians 7:37

      But the man who is firmly established in his heart and under no constraint, with control over his will and resolve in his heart not to marry the virgin, he will do well.

About Ezekiel

Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ezekiel: the study guide →Read Ezekiel 4 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Ezekiel 4 →