Read & explore together
The Defiled Bread
Ezekiel 4:9–17 uses a striking acted sign about bread and water. The passage explains measured food, uncleanness, and fear to show what Yahweh says will happen to the children of Israel.
Understanding the passage
The setting of this message
In this part of Ezekiel, Yahweh gives instructions about bread made from mixed grains, weighed portions, measured water, and fuel for baking. Ezekiel responds to one command because he has carefully avoided defilement, and Yahweh answers him while keeping the sign’s message clear.
Ezekiel 4:9–17Main takeaway
This passage teaches that Yahweh used Ezekiel’s food and drink as a prophetic sign of shortage, uncleanness, fear, and the people’s suffering in their iniquity.
Explore the message
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01A bread recipe for a long signYahweh tells Ezekiel to gather several grains and legumes into one vessel and make bread from them.
Explanation
Yahweh tells Ezekiel to gather several grains and legumes into one vessel and make bread from them. He is to eat this during the days he lies on his side, for three hundred ninety days. The command shows this is not ordinary cooking but part of a long prophetic sign.
02Measured food and measured waterThe bread and water are carefully limited. Ezekiel must eat twenty shekels of food a day and drink a sixth of a hin of water, taking them from time to time.
Explanation
The bread and water are carefully limited. Ezekiel must eat twenty shekels of food a day and drink a sixth of a hin of water, taking them from time to time. The repeated measuring points to rationing, not abundance, and prepares for the passage’s later words about fear and lack.
03Unclean bread among the nationsEzekiel is told to eat the bread as barley cakes and bake it in public using human dung. Yahweh then explains the sign: the children of Israel will eat their bread unclean among the nations where he will drive them.
Explanation
Ezekiel is told to eat the bread as barley cakes and bake it in public using human dung. Yahweh then explains the sign: the children of Israel will eat their bread unclean among the nations where he will drive them. The action symbolises defilement as well as hardship.
04Ezekiel’s objection and Yahweh’s answerEzekiel pleads with the Lord Yahweh, saying he has not polluted himself from youth until now.
Explanation
Ezekiel pleads with the Lord Yahweh, saying he has not polluted himself from youth until now. He has not eaten animals that died of themselves or were torn, and no abominable meat has entered his mouth. Yahweh responds by allowing cow’s dung instead of human dung, while the sign continues.
05What the sign means for JerusalemYahweh says he will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. People will eat bread by weight with fearfulness and drink water by measure in dismay.
Explanation
Yahweh says he will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. People will eat bread by weight with fearfulness and drink water by measure in dismay. The result will be lack, shared distress, and pining away in their iniquity. The sign therefore points to scarcity, anxiety, and judgement.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01Why does the passage keep mentioning food and water by measure?
Look at the exact quantities and the explanation that people will eat and drink with fearfulness, in dismay, and with lack.
02What does Yahweh himself say the unusual baking sign means?
Use the sentence where Yahweh explains how the children of Israel will eat their bread among the nations.
03How does Ezekiel’s protest help us understand the issue in this passage?
Notice the reasons Ezekiel gives about what he has avoided eating, and then see how Yahweh adjusts one part of the command.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Ezekiel 4:9–17
9“Take for yourself also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel. Make bread of it. According to the number of the days that you will lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it.
10Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time you shall eat it.
11You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin. From time to time you shall drink.
12You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.”
13Yahweh said, “Even thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.”
14Then I said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals. No abominable meat has come into my mouth!”
15Then he said to me, “Behold, I have given you cow’s dung for man’s dung, and you shall prepare your bread on it.”
16Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness. They will drink water by measure, and in dismay;
17that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.