Ezekiel 4:17
in Ezekiel 4So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
KJV
That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.
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This verse in Ezekiel 4
Commentary
6 notes on this verse(Verse 16, 17.) And he said to me: Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and with dismay; so that when bread and water are lacking, each one shall stumble to his brother, and they shall waste away in their iniquities. The Hebrew word Mate () is interpreted as staff in the first edition of Aquila, and as firmament in the second edition and by Symmachus and Theodotion.
This site's exposition
cut off the supply of food
on Ezekiel 4:16-17
The Lord says what the sign meant: “I am going to cut off the supply of food.” The Hebrew pictures bread as a staff that holds up life, as Henry explains. Their end is named: “they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.”
This site's exposition
wasting away in their iniquity
The sign ends in its purpose: bread and water will run short in the city. The people will be appalled at one another as they waste away in their iniquity. Matthew Henry names sin as the cause of the misery.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
And it is sin that brings all this misery upon them: They shall consume away in their iniquity (so it may be read); they shall continue hardened and impenitent, and shall die in their sins, which is more miserable than to die on a dunghill. Now, (1.) Let us see here what woeful work sin makes with a people, and acknowledge the righteousness of God herein.
That they may want bread and water,....
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,
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לְמַ֥עַן | lemaan | so that | H4616 → | 272 times |
| יַחְסְר֖וּ | yachseru | they may lack | H2637 → | |
| לֶ֣חֶם | lechem | bread | H3899 → | 298 times |
| וָמָ֑יִם | vamayim | and water | H4325 → | 581 times |
| וְנָשַׁ֙מּוּ֙ | venashamu | and they will be appalled | H8074 → | 86 times |
| אִ֣ישׁ | ʾish | everyone | H376 → | 1663 times |
| וְאָחִ֔יו | veachiv | and brother his | H251 → | 630 times |
| וְנָמַ֖קּוּ | venamaku | and they will waste away | H4743 → | 10 times |
| בַּעֲוֹנָֽם׃ פ | baavonam | in iniquity their | H5771 → | 233 times |
לְמַ֥עַןso that
lemaanH4616 →272 times
יַחְסְר֖וּthey may lack
yachseruH2637 →
לֶ֣חֶםbread
lechemH3899 →298 times
וָמָ֑יִםand water
vamayimH4325 →581 times
וְנָשַׁ֙מּוּ֙and they will be appalled
venashamuH8074 →86 times
אִ֣ישׁeveryone
ʾishH376 →1663 times
וְאָחִ֔יוand brother his
veachivH251 →630 times
וְנָמַ֖קּוּand they will waste away
venamakuH4743 →10 times
בַּעֲוֹנָֽם׃ פin iniquity their
baavonamH5771 →233 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
Leviticus 26:39Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 33:10
Now as for you, son of man, tell the house of Israel that this is what they have said: ‘Our transgressions and our sins are heavy upon us, and we are wasting away because…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ezekiel 24:23
Your turbans will remain on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn or weep, but you will waste away because of your sins, and you will groan among yourselves.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Matthew 23:35–36
And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and…
- Ezekiel 6:9
Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that…
- Exodus 20:5
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth…
- Ezekiel 33:10
Through
Ezekiel 33:10Now as for you, son of man, tell the house of Israel that this is what they have said: ‘Our transgressions and our sins are heavy upon us, and we are wasting away because…
it leads to
- Leviticus 26:39
Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ezekiel 37:11
Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’
- Isaiah 49:14
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; the Lord has forgotten me!”
- Leviticus 26:39
About Ezekiel
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.