Ezekiel 4:9

9 “Now go and get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and emmer wheat, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use them to make bread for yourself during the 390 days you will be lying on your side.

Ezekiel 4:9 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 4:9

Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and
lentiles, and millet, and fitches
The first of these was commonly used to make bread of; in case of want and poverty, barley was used; but, for the rest, they were for cattle, and never used for the food of men but in a time of great scarcity; wherefore this was designed to denote the famine that should attend the siege of Jerusalem; see ( 2 Kings 25:3 ) ; and put them in one vessel;
that is, the flour of them, when ground, in order to be mixed and kneaded together, and make one dough thereof; which mixed bread was a sign of a sore famine: the Septuagint call it an earthen vessel; a kneading trough seems to be designed: and make thee bread thereof, [according] to the number of the days that
thou shalt lie upon thy side;
the left side, on which he was to lie three hundred and ninety days: and so as much bread was to be made as would suffice for that time; or so many loaves were to be made as there were days, a loaf for a day: three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof;
no mention is made of the forty days, perhaps they are understood, a part being put for the whole; or they were included in the three hundred and ninety days. The Septuagint and Arabic versions read only a hundred and ninety days.

Ezekiel 4:9 In-Context

7 “Meanwhile, keep staring at the siege of Jerusalem. Lie there with your arm bared and prophesy her destruction.

8 I will tie you up with ropes so you won’t be able to turn from side to side until the days of your siege have been completed.

9 “Now go and get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and emmer wheat, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use them to make bread for yourself during the 390 days you will be lying on your side.

10 Ration this out to yourself, eight ounces of food for each day, and eat it at set times.

11 Then measure out a jar of water for each day, and drink it at set times.