Ezekiel 4:9-17·~1 min

The Defiled Bread

Ezekiel is instructed to make bread from several grains mixed together and to eat it in carefully measured portions, accompanied by water in strict measure. The bread is to be baked over human excrement in the sight of the people, turning the prophet's food into a public sign of ritual degradation. The LORD explains that this is how Israel will eat defiled bread among the nations where they are banished.

B⁹ut 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. ¹⁰You are to weigh out twenty shekels of food to eat each day, and you are to eat it at set times. ¹¹You are also to measure out a sixth of a hin of water to drink, and you are to drink it at set times. ¹²And 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.” ¹³Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.”

Ezekiel protests that he has not defiled himself in this way from his youth, and the LORD grants him cow dung instead of human waste for baking. Even with that concession, the interpretation remains severe: God will cut off Jerusalem's supply of bread so that food and water are consumed anxiously by measure. The result will be appalled, wasting people bearing the consequences of their iniquity before one another.

¹⁴“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.” ¹⁵“Look,” He replied, “I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you may bake your bread over that.” 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 by measure. ¹⁷So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.[’’]

Section summaryThe prophet is told to make bread from a mixed collection of grains and to eat it in strict daily rations, along with measured water, throughout the days of the sign. He is first commanded to bake it over human excrement as a sign of Israel's defilement among the nations, but after his protest God permits cow dung instead. The chapter ends by explaining that Jerusalem's food supply will be cut off so that people waste away in anxious scarcity and iniquity.

Role in the chapterThis closing section dramatizes the defilement and famine that will accompany judgment and exile.