Ezekiel 4:9

But take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. This is what you are to eat during the 390 days you lie on your side.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — God commands Ezekiel during a prophetic enactment of Jerusalem's siege. The instruction follows the binding of the prophet and precedes the daily rationing directive.

The words — קַח (kach) translates literally as "take," and חִטִּין (chi.Tin) means "wheat." These terms open the list of six grains Ezekiel must gather.

The thread — The text explicitly lists the grain mixture before noting it becomes bread for 390 days. This combination later appears as defiled bread in exile (Ezekiel 4:13) and contrasts with the deliberate sowing patterns described in agricultural texts (Isaiah 28:25). The rationing also parallels the later warning of a severed food supply (Ezekiel 4:16).

Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to accept a commanded act of survival that defies normal dietary preparation. It demands recognition that prophetic obedience involves enduring calculated deprivation without alteration.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

וְאַתָּ֣הve./'a.Tahand/ you קַח־kach-takeלְךָ֡le./Kha<for>/ yourselfחִטִּ֡יןchi.Tinwheat<s>וּ֠שְׂעֹרִיםU./se.'o.rimand/ barley<s>וּפ֨וֹלu./Foland/ bean[s]וַעֲדָשִׁ֜יםva./'a.da.Shimand/ lentils וְדֹ֣חַןve./Do.chanand/ millet וְכֻסְּמִ֗יםve./khu.se.Mimand/ spelt<s>וְנָתַתָּ֤הve./na.ta.Tahand/ you will put אוֹתָם֙'o.Ta/m<obj.>/ them בִּכְלִ֣יbi/kh.Liin/ a vessel אֶחָ֔ד'e.Chadone וְעָשִׂ֧יתָve./'a.Si.taand/ you will make אוֹתָ֛ם'o.Ta/m<obj.>/ themלְךָ֖le./Khafor <the>/ yourselfלְלָ֑חֶםle./La.cheminto/ bread מִסְפַּ֨רmis.Par[the] number of הַיָּמִ֜יםhai./ya.Mimthe/ days אֲשֶׁר־'a.Sher-which אַתָּ֣ה׀'a.Tahyou שׁוֹכֵ֣בsho.Khev[will be] lying עַֽל־'al-on צִדְּךָ֗tzi.de./Khaside/ your שְׁלֹשׁ־she.losh-three מֵא֧וֹתme.'othundreds וְתִשְׁעִ֛יםve./tish.'Imand/ ninety י֖וֹםYomday[s]תֹּאכֲלֶֽנּוּ׃to.kha.Le./nuyou will eat/ it

King James Version

Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.

Cross-references

Ezekiel 4:13 Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.”
Isaiah 28:25 When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots, and rye within its border.
Ezekiel 4:16 Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.