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Ezekiel 4:9

in Ezekiel 4

But 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.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, even three hundred and ninety days, shalt thou eat thereof.

KJV

Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.

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This verse in Ezekiel 4

Commentary

9 notes on this verse
Two things are prefigured in the remainder of this chapter, (1) the hardships of exile, (2) the straitness of a siege. To the people of Israel, separated from the rest of the nations as holy, it was a leading feature in the calamities of their exile that they must be mixed up with other nations, and eat of their food, which to the Jews was a defilement (compare Eze 4:13; Amo 7:17; Dan 1:8.) Fitches - A species of wheat with shorn ears.

This site's exposition

Take thou also unto thee wheat

on Ezekiel 4:9-11

The bread is baked from six grains mixed in one vessel, wheat and barley eked out with beans, lentils, millet and spelt, the recipe of a granary running out rather than a proper loaf. Food comes by weight, twenty shekels a day, and water by measure, a sixth of a hin, eaten and drunk from time to time rather than at settled meals. Henry reads the mixed grain and the careful rationing together as the picture of siege scarcity, a city reduced to stretching every grain it has left. The measured portions dramatize Leviticus 26's warning that bread eaten by weight and in fear is a covenant curse, not an ordinary famine.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Ezekiel · Written before 420.

proposed

(Vrs. 9 ff.) And you will take for yourself wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt; and you will put them into one vessel, and you will make for yourself breads according to the number of days on which you will sleep on your side: three hundred and ninety days you will eat it. But your food that you will eat will be in the weight of twenty shekels a day: from time to time you will eat it.

The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

Take - Provide thee corn enough: for a grievous famine will accompany the siege. Wheat - All sorts of grain are to be provided, and all will be little enough.
Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches,....

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,

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Note, It is our wisdom not to be too fond of dainties and pleasant bread, because we know not what hard meat we may be tied to, nay, and may be glad of, before we die. The meanest sort of food is better than we deserve, and therefore must not be despised nor wasted, nor must those that use it be looked upon with disdain, because we know not what may be our own lot.
2 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

But Judah also is secondarily referred to in the three hundred ninety days, as having fallen, like Israel, into Gentile defilements; if, then, the Jews are to escape from the exile among Gentiles, which is their just punishment, they must submit again to the wilderness probation (Eze 4:16).

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Take thou also unto thee wheat - In times of scarcity, it is customary in all countries to mix several kinds of coarser grain with the finer, to make it last the longer. This mashlin, which the prophet is commanded to take, of wheat, barley, beans, lentiles, millet, and fitches, was intended to show how scarce the necessaries of life should be during the siege.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

with a weight [This is] symbolic of the besieged people, who are fearful of the famine and [so] eat with a measure and drink with a measure.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Ezekiel 4:10:1, 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

29 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.

  • וְאַתָּ֣הand you

    veatahH859 →1094 times

  • קַח־take

    kach-H3947 →966 times

  • לְךָ֡<for> yourself

    lekha

  • חִטִּ֡יןwheat<s>

    chitinH2406 →30 times

  • וּ֠שְׂעֹרִיםand barley<s>

    useorimH8184 →34 times

  • וּפ֨וֹלand bean[s]

    ufolH6321 →

  • וַעֲדָשִׁ֜יםand lentils

    vaadashimH5742 →

  • וְדֹ֣חַןand millet

    vedochanH1764 →

  • וְכֻסְּמִ֗יםand spelt<s>

    vekhusemimH3698 →

  • וְנָתַתָּ֤הand you will put

    venatatahH5414 →2011 times

  • אוֹתָם֙<obj.> them

    ʾotamH853 →10935 times

  • בִּכְלִ֣יin a vessel

    bikhliH3627 →325 times

  • אֶחָ֔דone

    ʾechadH259 →971 times

  • וְעָשִׂ֧יתָand you will make

    veasitaH6213 →2628 times

  • אוֹתָ֛ם<obj.> them

    ʾotamH853 →10935 times

  • לְךָ֖for <the> yourself

    lekha

  • לְלָ֑חֶםinto bread

    lelachemH3899 →298 times

  • מִסְפַּ֨ר[the] number of

    misparH4557 →134 times

  • הַיָּמִ֜יםthe days

    haiyamimH3117 →2304 times

  • אֲשֶׁר־which

    ʾasher-H834 →5497 times

  • אַתָּ֣ה׀you

    ʾatahH859 →1094 times

  • שׁוֹכֵ֣ב[will be] lying

    shokhevH7901 →212 times

  • עַֽל־on

    ʾal-H5921 →5755 times

  • צִדְּךָ֗side your

    tzidekhaH6654 →33 times

  • שְׁלֹשׁ־three

    shelosh-H7969 →432 times

  • מֵא֧וֹתhundreds

    meotH3967 →581 times

  • וְתִשְׁעִ֛יםand ninety

    vetishimH8673 →20 times

  • י֖וֹםday[s]

    yomH3117 →2304 times

  • תֹּאכֲלֶֽנּוּ׃you will eat it

    tokhalenuH398 →810 times

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

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

8 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

    Ezekiel 4:16

    Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water…

    it leads to

    • Ezekiel 5:16

      When I shower you with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of food.

    • Isaiah 3:1

      For behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts is about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: the whole supply of food and water,

    • Leviticus 26:26

      When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.

    • Ezekiel 4:10–11

      You are to weigh out twenty shekels of food to eat each day, and you are to eat it at set times.

    • Ezekiel 12:18–19

      “Son of man, eat your bread with trembling, and drink your water with quivering and anxiety.

  • Through

    Ezekiel 4:13

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

    it leads to

    • 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.

    • Hosea 9:3–4

      They will not remain in the land of the LORD; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.

  • Through

    Isaiah 28:25

    When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots, and rye within its border.

    it leads to

    • Matthew 23:23

      Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced…

About Ezekiel

The Prophet Ezekiel, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Prophet Ezekiel, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ezekiel: the study guide →Read Ezekiel 4 →

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

Read on in Ezekiel 4 →