Ezekiel 4:12

12 Eat it like barley bread, and bake it on human excrement while they watch.

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 At fixed times you will eat your food by weight, fourteen ounces a day.
11 You will also ration your water by measure, drinking a sixth of a hin at fixed times each day.
12 Eat it like barley bread, and bake it on human excrement while they watch.
13 The LORD says: In this same way the Israelites will eat their unclean bread among the nations where I am scattering them.
14 And I said: "Ah, LORD God! I've never been unclean! From my childhood until now I've never eaten anything that wasn't properly slaughtered, and no unclean meat has ever entered my mouth!"
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