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Ezekiel 4

Ezekiel 4:13

The Defiled Bread · Ezekiel 4:9–17
Read Ezekiel 4

Translations

Modern
Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.”
Traditional
And the Lord said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.
Literal
And YHWH said: “So the sons of Israel shall eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, to which I will drive them there.”
Latin
Et dixit Dominus: Sic comedent filii Israël panem suum pollutum inter gentes ad quas ejiciam eos. Et dixi:

Original

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

Notes

Ezekiel 4:12–13

Cooking with human excrement (human waste) would make the bread ceremonially unclean. This means it would be unfit for worship according to the law of Moses. If Ezekiel ate it, he would become unclean.

This act was a sign of what would happen to the Israelites in exile. In a foreign land, it would be very hard to follow the kosher dietary laws (the food laws God gave to Israel). As a result, they would eat food that was unclean.

Because of this, they would be unclean and separated from the Lord’s cleansing presence (his holy presence that makes people pure).

Ezekiel 4:9–17

The near-starvation diet of eight ounces of food and a jar of water each day represents siege rations. This reflects a desperate situation where there was not enough of any one type of grain to make a whole loaf.

Ezekiel 4:1–7:27

These chapters discuss words and actions that warned of disaster for Jerusalem (Ezekiel 4–5) and the land of Judah (Ezekiel 6–7).

Theme notes and profiles

Prophetic Sign Acts The Gift of Prophecy

Events

People

Israel: Patriarch, son of Isaac, father of twelve tribes

Glossary

Banish, Banishment Dietary Laws Ezekiel, Book of Prophet, Prophetess Son of Man

Topics

Instruction by Object Lessons: Eating Bread Mixed with Dung Prayer: Answered: Ezekiel, to Have the Baking of his Bread of Affliction Changed Prophecies Concerning Israel: Prophecies Concerning: Dispersion of Prophets: Frequently in Their Actions Were Made Signs to the People Symbols and Similitudes: Ceremonially Unclean Food Symbols and Similitudes: Cooking