Ezekiel 4:9-11

4:9 “As for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, ¹  put them in a single container, and make food ²  from them for yourself. For the same number of days that you lie on your side – 390 days ³  – you will eat it. 4:10 The food you eat will be eight ounces ⁴  a day by weight; you must eat it at fixed ⁵  times. 4:11 And you must drink water by measure, a pint and a half; ⁶  you must drink it at fixed times.

[4:9]  ¹ sn Wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt. All these foods were common in Mesopotamia where Ezekiel was exiled.

[4:9]  ² tn Heb “bread.”

[4:9]  ³ tc The LXX reads “190 days.”

[4:10]  ⁴ sn Eight ounces (Heb “twenty shekels”). The standards for weighing money varied considerably in the ancient Near East, but the generally accepted weight for the shekel is 11.5 grams (0.4 ounce). This makes the weight of grain about 230 grams here (8 ounces).

[4:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “from time to time.”

[4:11]  ⁶ sn A pint and a half [Heb “one-sixth of a hin”]. One-sixth of a hin was a quantity of liquid equal to about 1.3 pints or 0.6 liters.