Ezekiel 4:11
in Ezekiel 4You are also to measure out a sixth of a hin of water to drink, and you are to drink it at set times.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And thou shalt drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.
KJV
Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.
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This verse in Ezekiel 4
Commentary
7 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Water by measure - This probably corresponds to the water of affliction 1Ki 22:27; Isa 30:20. The measure of the hin is variously estimated by Jewish writers. The sixth part of a hin will be according to one estimate about 610ths, according to another 910ths of a pint. The lesser estimate is more suitable here.
This site's exposition
take wheat, barley, beans, lentils
on Ezekiel 4:9-11
The bread mixes six kinds of grain and pulse in “a single container.” The prophet eats “twenty shekels of food” a day and drinks “a sixth of a hin of water.” The ration echoes the curse of Leviticus 26:26, where bread is doled out by weight and eaten without satisfying.
This site's exposition
a sixth of a hin of water
Water too is measured out: a sixth of a hin to drink at set times. Albert Barnes notes that Jewish writers measure the hin in different ways, and by either count this was under a pint. He links it to the water of affliction in 1 Kings 22:27.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(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 Awakening3 voices
Note, God's servants must learn to endure hardness, and to deny themselves the use of lawful delights, when they may thereby serve the glory of God, evidence the sincerity of their faith, and express their sympathy with their brethren in affliction. The body must be kept under and brought into subjection. Nature is content with a little, grace with less, but lust with nothing.
Thou shall drink also water by measure,....
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
from time to time From day to day you shall drink with this measure, viz. a sixth of a hin.
2 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
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.
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.
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
9 Hebrew wordsEvery 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.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וּמַ֛יִם | umayim | and water | H4325 → | 581 times |
| בִּמְשׂוּרָ֥ה | bimsurah | by measure | H4884 → | |
| תִשְׁתֶּ֖ה | tishteh | you will drink | H8354 → | 217 times |
| שִׁשִּׁ֣ית | shishit | <the> sixth of | H8345 → | 28 times |
| הַהִ֑ין | hahin | <the> hin | H1969 → | 22 times |
| מֵעֵ֥ת | meet | from time | H6256 → | 296 times |
| עַד־ | ʾad- | to | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| עֵ֖ת | ʾet | time | H6256 → | 296 times |
| תִּשְׁתֶּֽה׃ | tishteh | you will drink [it] | H8354 → | 217 times |
וּמַ֛יִםand water
umayimH4325 →581 times
בִּמְשׂוּרָ֥הby measure
bimsurahH4884 →
תִשְׁתֶּ֖הyou will drink
tishtehH8354 →217 times
שִׁשִּׁ֣ית<the> sixth of
shishitH8345 →28 times
הַהִ֑ין<the> hin
hahinH1969 →22 times
מֵעֵ֥תfrom time
meetH6256 →296 times
עַד־to
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
עֵ֖תtime
ʾetH6256 →296 times
תִּשְׁתֶּֽה׃you will drink [it]
tishtehH8354 →217 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach 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
John 3:34For the One whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.
it leads to
- Acts 10:38
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him.
- Matthew 12:18
“Here is My Servant, whom I have chosen, My beloved, in whom My soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will proclaim justice to the nations.
- John 15:26
When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—He will testify about Me.
- John 5:26
For as the Father has life in Himself, so also He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.
- Isaiah 11:2–5
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD.
- Acts 10:38
Through
Isaiah 5:13Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst.
it leads to
- Hosea 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget…
- Isaiah 1:3
The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”
- Hosea 4:6
Through
Ezekiel 4:16Then 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.
- Ezekiel 5:16
About Ezekiel
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); 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.