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Ezekiel 4

God makes Ezekiel’s body and daily food signs of Jerusalem’s coming siege and the cost of Israel’s iniquity.

God commands Ezekiel to draw Jerusalem on a tile and surround it with siege works, making a sign for the house of Israel. The prophet must lie on his sides for appointed days, bearing the iniquity of Israel and Judah, with each day representing a year. Measured bread and water portray the shortages ahead. When Ezekiel objects to baking with human dung, God permits cow dung instead. The signs announce siege, hunger, and uncleanness among the nations.

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1“You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem.
2Lay siege against it, build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it. Also set camps against it and plant battering rams against it all around.
3Take for yourself an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city. Then set your face toward it. It will be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
4“Moreover lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. According to the number of the days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.
5For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
6“Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have appointed forty days, each day for a year, to you.
7You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it.
9“Take for yourself also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel. Make bread of it. According to the number of the days that you will lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it.
10Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time you shall eat it.
11You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin. From time to time you shall drink.
12You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.”
13The LORD said, “Even thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.”
14Then I said, “Ah Lord GOD! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals. No abominable meat has come into my mouth!”
16Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness. They will drink water by measure, and in dismay;
17that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Ezekiel 4:16God explains the measured rations: Jerusalem’s food supply will fail, and eating and drinking will become acts of fear.
Ezekiel 4:14Ezekiel’s protest concerns defilement, and God responds by changing the fuel while retaining the sign of hardship.
Ezekiel 4:13God identifies the unclean bread as a sign of Israel’s coming life among the nations where he will drive them.
Where this chapter reaches

Leviticus shares the warning of bread rationed by weight under God’s judgment, while Numbers also uses a day to represent a year in a judgment sign. Daniel shares the concern about defilement through food that appears in Ezekiel’s protest over the commanded bread preparation.

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After reading the whole chapter

What does the movement from a model siege to measured meals reveal about the judgment being announced?

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What do you notice about Ezekiel’s objection and God’s response within these severe commands?

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Questions people ask about Ezekiel 4

Why did Ezekiel lie on his side for 390 days and 40 days?

God assigns 390 days to the iniquity of the house of Israel and forty days to the house of Judah, with each day representing a year. Ezekiel’s posture makes their guilt and coming judgment visible. The chapter does not identify the exact historical starting and ending points for those years.

Why did God tell Ezekiel to cook bread over dung?

The dung serves as cooking fuel. God explains that the bread portrays Israel eating unclean food among the nations where he will drive them. Ezekiel protests that he has kept himself from defiling food. God then permits cow dung in place of human dung, while keeping the sign’s warning intact.

What does Ezekiel 4 mean by breaking the staff of bread?

The phrase pictures bread as a support that sustains life. God says he will break that support in Jerusalem. The following lines explain the image: bread and water will be rationed, people will eat and drink in fear, and shortages will leave them wasting away in their iniquity.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).