Ezekiel 4:12

12 Eat your food as you would eat a barley cake, baking it over human dung where the people can see."

Ezekiel 4:12 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 4:12

And thou shalt eat it [as] barley cakes
That is, the bread made of wheat, barley, beans, lentiles, millet, and fitches, was to be made in the form of barley cakes, and to be baked as they; not in an oven, but under ashes; and these ashes not of wood, or straw, or turf, but as follows: and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of men, in their
sight:
the prophet was to take human dung, and dry it, and then cover the cakes or loaves of his mixed bread with it, and burn it over them, and with it bake it; which must be a very disagreeable task to him, and make the food very nauseous, both to himself and to the Jews, in whose sight it was done; and this shows scarcity of fuel, and the severity of the famine; that they had not fuel to bake with, or could not stay till it was baked in an oven, and therefore took this method; as well as points at what they were to eat when carried captive, as follows:

Ezekiel 4:12 In-Context

10 You will eat eight ounces of food every day at set times.

11 You will drink about two-thirds of a quart of water every day at set times.

12 Eat your food as you would eat a barley cake, baking it over human dung where the people can see."

13 Then the Lord said, "In the same way Israel will eat unclean food among the nations where I force them to go."

14 But I said, "No, Lord God! I have never been made unclean. From the time I was young until now I've never eaten anything that died by itself or was torn by animals. Unclean meat has never entered my mouth."