to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
children
בְנֵֽיve.nei-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֛לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
eat
יֹאכְל֧וּyo.khe.Lu
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
defiled
טָמֵ֑אta.Me'
H2931
foul in a religious sense · adjective, masculine singular absolute
bread
לַחְמָ֖םlach.Mam
H3899
food (for man or beast) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Gentiles
בַּגּוֹיִ֕םba.go.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
drive
אַדִּיחֵ֖ם'a.di.Chem
H5080
to push off · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Daniel 1:8 But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: the…
Hosea 9:3-4 They shall not dwell in the LORD’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 4:9–end
The best exposition of this part of Ezekiel's prediction of Jerusalem's desolation is Jeremiah's lamentation of it, Lam 4:3, Lam 4:4, etc., and Lam 4:10, where he pathetically describes the terrible famine that was in Jerusalem during the siege and the sad effects of it.
I. The prophet here, to affect the people with the foresight of it, must confine himself for 390 days to coarse fare and short commons, and that ill-dressed, for they should want both food and fuel.
1. His meat, for the quality of it, was to be of the worst bread, made of but little wheat and barley, and the rest of beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, such as we feed horses or fatted hogs with, and this mixed, as m…
Implying that Israel's peculiar distinction was to be abolished and that they were to be outwardly blended with the idolatrous heathen (Deu 28:68; Hos 9:3).
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 4:12
Thou shalt bake it with dung - Dried ox and cow dung is a common fuel in the east; and with this, for want of wood and coals, they are obliged to prepare their food. Indeed, dried excrement of every kind is gathered. Here, the prophet is to prepare his bread with dry human excrement. And when we know that this did not come in contact with the bread, and was only used to warm the plate, (see Eze 4:3), on which the bread was laid over the fire, it removes all the horror and much of the disgust. This was required to show the extreme degree of wretchedness to which they should be exposed; for, not being able to leave the city to collect the dried excrements of beasts, the inhabitants during the…
And the Lord said, even thus shall the children of Israel,.... 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 (k) cite this passage to prove that he that eats bread without drying his hands is as if he ate defiled…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 13 and following) And the Lord said: Thus will the sons of Israel eat their polluted bread among the nations to which I will drive them out. And I said, ah, ah, ah, O Lord God: Behold, my soul is not polluted, and I have not eaten carrion or torn flesh from beasts from my youth until now, and all unclean flesh has not entered into my mouth. And he said to me: Behold, I have given you cow dung instead of human dung, and you shall make your bread with it. According to the book of Zachariah (Zech. III), prophets are seen as portentous men who foretell the future through their works and are spoken of by God. We frequently read throughout the Bible that prophets are compared to God's hands (Hosea XII, 10). As we see in many instances, just as Ezekiel ate bread in dung, the children of Israel, or the entire population of Judah, or as some believe, the ten tribes, will eat polluted bread among the nations. This is not a threat to those who have already been expelled but to those who will be expelled from the promised land. When the Prophet learned this, he strongly condemned it according to Aquila, ah, ah, ah. But according to Symmachus and the Septuagint, he responded by saying 'μηδαμῶς', which means ' by no means' in Latin. For which Theodotion translated: 'O Lord God'. We should not think that he contradicts the command of the Lord, but rather that he gives reasons and even begs why he cannot do this. Finally, he obtained what he asked for, and the severity of the sentence was tempered by a milder command. It is asked why Ezekiel refused easier things: and why Hosea was immediately joined to a prostitute without objection or response, saying that he keeps his body chaste and should not be defiled by the touch of a harlot, as the Apostle says: 'Whoever is joined to a harlot becomes one body with her' (I Cor. VI, 16). From which it is shown that the figure of the Synagogue or Church was not truly accomplished according to the letter: which we have explained more fully in our exposition of the prophet. Morticinium is said to be the taking of life without the shedding of blood, and in which the soul dies, torn by beasts, which is called θηριάλωτον in Greek. But as for the filth granted to human excrement, which is called dung, lighter evils are signified: for indeed they are commanded to eat bread cooked in ox dung; but it is far from uncleanness of human…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Dung — (1.) Used as manure (Luke 13:8); collected outside the city walls (Neh. 2:13). Of sacrifices, burned outside the camp (Ex. 29:14; Lev. 4:11; 8:17; Num. 19:5). To be “cast out as dung,” a figurative…
Fuel — Almost every kind of combustible matter was used for fuel, such as the withered stalks of herbs (Matt. 6:30), thorns (Ps. 58:9; Eccl. 7:6), animal excrements (Ezek. 4:12-15; 15:4, 6; 21:32). Wood or…
Instruction · Eating bread mixed with dung — Eating bread mixed with dung
Prophets · Frequently in their actions, &c were made signs to the people — Frequently in their actions, &c were made signs to the people
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Ezekiel 4:12-13
12. And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.
12. Et placentam [95] hordeorum comedes, et ipsam in stercoribus humanam excrementi coques coram oculis ipsorum.
13. And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.
13. Et dixit Iehovah: sic comedent filii Israel panem suum pollutum in gentibus ad quas expulero eos.
This vision properly belongs to the ten tribes, and, for this reason, I have said that God's vengeance is not to be considered as to the siege of the city alone, but to be extended longer. After the Prophet had spok…
Cooking over human dung would render the bread ceremonially unclean, thus defiling Ezekiel when he ate it. The Israelites had to eat defiled bread in exile, when it was extremely difficult to observe kosher dietary laws. They would be unclean and cut off from the cleansing presence of the Lord.
