Ezekiel 4:9

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. TAKE THOU ALSO UNTO THEE WHEAT, AND BARLEY ... - instead of fine meal or simple flour used for delicate cakes (), the Jews should have a coarse mixture of six different kinds of grain, such as the poorest alone would eat. FITCHES - spelt or dhourra. THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY DAYS SHALT THOU EAT THEREOF - the 40 days which complete the 430 (note, ) are omitted, since these latter typify the wilderness period, when Israel stood separate from the Gentiles and their pol...

It is by no means doubtful, that this verse applies to the siege, because God signifies that the city would then suffer famine, but a little afterwards he adds another vision, from which we gather, that the subject is not only the siege of Jerusalem, but the general vengeance of God against all the tribes, which had fallen on the Jews through their alliance with them, and which ended at length in the siege. But here God shows the future condition of the city Jerusalem. For this various kind of bread is a sign of want, for we make bread of wheat, and if any region is barren there barley is eaten or’ vetches, and if we have but a moderate supply, still wheaten bread is used, but when lentils and beans, and millet and spelt are used, a severer penury is portrayed. In the time of Jerome the name of spelt was in use for “zea,” since he says, it was “gentile” among the Italians. I know not how...

9-17 The bread which was Ezekiel's support, was to be made of coarse grain and pulse mixed together, seldom used except in times of urgent scarcity, and of this he was only to take a small quantity. Thus was figured the extremity to which the Jews were to be reduced during the siege and captivity. Ezekiel does not plead, Lord, from my youth I have been brought up delicately, and never used to any thing like this; but that he had been brought up conscientiously, and never had eaten any thing forbidden by the law. It will be comfortable when we are brought to suffer hardships, if our hearts can witness that we have always been careful to keep even from the appearance of evil. See what woful work sin makes, and acknowledge the righteousness of God herein. Their plenty having been abused to luxury and excess, they were justly punished by famine. When men serve not God with cheerfulness in t...

Verse Ezekiel 4:9. _TAKE THOU ALSO UNTO THEE WHEAT_] In times of _scarcity_, it is customary in all countries to mix several kinds of coarser grain with the finer, to make it last the longer. This _mashlin_, which the prophet is commanded to take, of wheat, barley, beans, lentiles, millet, and fitches, was intended to show how scarce the necessaries of life should be during the siege....

Two things are prefigured in the remainder of this chapter, (1) the hardships of exile, (2) the straitness of a siege. To the people of Israel, separated from the rest of the nations as holy, it was a leading feature in the calamities of their exile that they must be mixed up with other nations, and eat of their food, which to the Jews was a defilement (compare Ezekiel 4:13; Amos 7:17; Daniel 1:8.) FITCHES - A species of wheat with shorn ears. IN ONE VESSEL - To mix all the

EXPOSITION Prior to any detailed examination of the strange series of acts recorded in this and the following chapter, we are met with the question whether they were indeed visible and outward acts, or only imagined by the prophet in a state of ecstasy and afterwards reported by him to the people. Each view has been maintained by commentators of repute. I adopt, with scarcely any hesitation, the former, and for the following reasons. (1) On the other interpretation the acts recorded were not signs to the people (Ezekiel 4:3) till the prophet reported them; but the whole context shows that they were to be substitutes for spoken teaching. They belong to the period of the prophet's silence. (2) This mode of teaching, though not carried to the same extent, was part of the normal method of a prophet's work. Zedekiah's horns of iron ...

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

Ezekiel 4:1. The word tile means “brick.” They were used by the Babylonians to preserve their records, and many have been found marked with building plans, etc. The sign of the tile foretells the siege of Jerusalem and Jehovah's opposition against the city. Ezekiel 4:4. While in the preceding sign Jehovah's action against Jerusalem was pictured, in this new sign a portrayal is given of the punishment which should come upon the inhabitants of the city. In his own person Ezekiel had to experience the great degradation and judgment which was to fall upon all the people. The critical school has invented all kinds of theories to explain, or rather to explain away, the divine command given to the prophet. They say that probably Ezekiel suffered from some form of epilepsy or catalepsy; they also point out the physical

(C) THE HARDSHIPS OF THE EXILES AND THE BESIEGED. The horrors of famine, consequent upon the siege, are suggested by the symbolical action of this section, in which the prophet's food and drink are to be carefully measured out about half a pound of food a day and a little over a pint of water. But blended with the thought of the scarcity of food during the siege is the thought of the uncleanness of the food eaten during the exile. According to Hebrew ideas, any food eaten in any land outside of Canaan was necessarily unclean: partly because such a land, not being Yahweh's land, was itself unclean, and partly because no first-fruits would be offered to Him, as He could have no sanctuary there (Hosea 9:3 f.). The uncleanness of exile is suggested by the mongrel combinations (_cf._ Ezekiel 4:9) which in food, as in d

FTCHES, in English, is another spelling of vetches, is plant having tendrils. But the Hebrew. _kaseemeth is_ defined as trlticum _spetla,_ or spelled,. kind of eon), always distinguished from wheat, barley, &c. Compare EX. Eze 9:32.Isaiah 28:25. Here, in plural....