Ezekiel 4:13

13 Then the LORD said, “This is how Israel will eat defiled bread in the Gentile lands to which I will banish them!”

Ezekiel 4:13 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 4:13

And the Lord said, even thus shall the children of Israel,
&c.] Not the ten tribes only, or those who were among the other two, but all the Jews in captivity: eat the defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them;
so called, not because mixed, but baked in the above manner; which was a symbol of the defilements which they should contract upon various accounts, by dwelling among the Gentiles; so that this foretells their captivity; their pollution among the nations of the world; and that they should not be the holy people to the Lord they had been, and had boasted of. The Jews ^F11 cite this passage to prove that he that eats bread without drying his hands is as if he ate defiled bread.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F11 T. Bab. Sota, fol, 4. 2.

Ezekiel 4:13 In-Context

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

12 Prepare and eat this food as you would barley cakes. While all the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread.”

13 Then the LORD said, “This is how Israel will eat defiled bread in the Gentile lands to which I will banish them!”

14 Then I said, “O Sovereign LORD, must I be defiled by using human dung? For I have never been defiled before. From the time I was a child until now I have never eaten any animal that died of sickness or was killed by other animals. I have never eaten any meat forbidden by the law.”

15 “All right,” the LORD said. “You may bake your bread with cow dung instead of human dung.”