Ezekiel 4:12
in Ezekiel 4And you shall eat the food as you would a barley cake, after you bake it over dried human excrement in the sight of the people.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it in their sight with dung that cometh out of man.
KJV
And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.
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This verse in Ezekiel 4
Commentary
9 notes on this verseThou shalt bake it with dung - Dried ox and cow dung is a common fuel in the east; and with this, for want of wood and coals, they are obliged to prepare their food. Indeed, dried excrement of every kind is gathered. Here, the prophet is to prepare his bread with dry human excrement. And when we know that this did not come in contact with the bread, and was only used to warm the plate, (see Eze 4:3), on which the bread was laid over the fire, it removes all the horror and much of the disgust.
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.
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 Awakening4 voices
This nauseous piece of cookery he must exercise publicly in their sight, that they might be the more affected with the calamity approaching, which was signified by it, that in the extremity of the famine they should not only have nothing that was dainty, but nothing that was cleanly, about them; they must take up with what they could get.
As barley cakes - Because they never had enough to make a loaf with, they eat them as barley cakes. With dung - There was no wood left, nor yet dung of other creatures. This also was represented in a vision.
And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes,....
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,
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
dung--as fuel; so the Arabs use beasts' dung, wood fuel being scarce. But to use human dung so implies the most cruel necessity. It was in violation of the law (De 14:3;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
In eastern countries where fuel is scarce the want is supplied by dried cow-dung laid up for the winter. Barley cakes were (and are) baked under hot ashes without an oven. The dung here is to be burned to ashes, and the ashes so employed.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
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.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
from time to time From day to day you shall drink with this measure, viz. a sixth of a hin.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְעֻגַ֥ת | veugat | and a bread cake of | H5692 → | |
| שְׂעֹרִ֖ים | seorim | barley<s> | H8184 → | 34 times |
| תֹּֽאכֲלֶ֑נָּה | tokhalenah | you will eat it | H398 → | 810 times |
| וְהִ֗יא | vehi' | and it | H1931 → | 1879 times |
| בְּגֶֽלְלֵי֙ | begelei | in [the] dung<s> of | H1561 → | |
| צֵאַ֣ת | tzeat | [the] excrement of | H6627 → | |
| הָֽאָדָ֔ם | haadam | <the> humankind | H120 → | 551 times |
| תְּעֻגֶ֖נָה | teugenah | you will bake it | H5746 → | |
| לְעֵינֵיהֶֽם׃ ס | leeineihem | to eyes their | H5869 → | 887 times |
וְעֻגַ֥תand a bread cake of
veugatH5692 →
שְׂעֹרִ֖יםbarley<s>
seorimH8184 →34 times
תֹּֽאכֲלֶ֑נָּהyou will eat it
tokhalenahH398 →810 times
וְהִ֗יאand it
vehi'H1931 →1879 times
בְּגֶֽלְלֵי֙in [the] dung<s> of
begeleiH1561 →
צֵאַ֣ת[the] excrement of
tzeatH6627 →
הָֽאָדָ֔ם<the> humankind
haadamH120 →551 times
תְּעֻגֶ֖נָהyou will bake it
teugenahH5746 →
לְעֵינֵיהֶֽם׃ סto eyes their
leeineihemH5869 →887 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
Isaiah 36:12But 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…
it leads to
- 2 Kings 18:27
But 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…
- Leviticus 26:29
You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.
- Isaiah 9:20
They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own…
- Jeremiah 19:9
I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’
- 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…
- 2 Kings 18:27
Through
Genesis 18:6So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Prepare three seahs of fine flour, knead it, and bake some bread.”
it leads to
- Romans 12:13
Share with the saints who are in need. Practice hospitality.
- Matthew 13:33
He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened.”
- Galatians 5:13
For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love.
- Romans 12:13
About Ezekiel
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; 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; 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.