Ezekiel 4:12-17

4:12 And you must eat the food like you would a barley cake. You must bake it in front of them over a fire made with dried human excrement.” ¹  4:13 And the Lord said, “This is how the people of Israel will eat their unclean food among the nations ²  where I will banish them.”

4:14 And I said, “Ah, sovereign Lord, I have never been ceremonially defiled before. I have never eaten a carcass or an animal torn by wild beasts; from my youth up, unclean meat ³  has never entered my mouth.”

4:15 So he said to me, “All right then, I will substitute cow’s manure instead of human excrement. You will cook your food over it.”

4:16 Then he said to me, “Son of man, I am about to remove the bread supply ⁴  in Jerusalem. ⁵  They will eat their bread ration anxiously, and they will drink their water ration in terror 4:17 because they will lack bread and water. Each one will be terrified, and they will rot for their iniquity. ⁶ 

¹ sn Human waste was to remain outside the camp of the Israelites according to Deut 23:15.

² sn Unclean food among the nations. Lands outside of Israel were considered unclean (Josh 22:19; Amos 7:17).

³ tn The Hebrew term refers to sacrificial meat not eaten by the appropriate time (Lev 7:18; 19:7).

⁴ tn Heb, “break the staff of bread.” The bread supply is compared to a staff that one uses for support.

⁵ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁶ tn Or “in their punishment.” Ezek 4:16-17 alludes to Lev 26:26, 39. The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here, 3:18, 19; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment for iniquity.”