Ezekiel 4:9

“Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, &c.] 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 <122503>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:…”

“wheat . . . barley, &c.--Instead of simple flour used for delicate cakes (Gen 18:6), 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--The forty days are omitted, since these latter typify the wilderness period when Israel stood separate from the Gentiles and their pollution, though partially chastened by stint of bread and water (Eze 4:16), whereas the eating of the polluted bread in the three hundred ninety days implies a forced residence "among the Gentiles" who were polluted with idolatry (Eze 4:13). This last is said of "Israel" primarily, as being the most debased (Eze…”

“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 these varied seeds was an indication that the people were no longer in their own land, where precautions against such mixing of seeds were prescribed. Three hundred and ninety days - The days of Israel’s punishment; because…”

“Take - Provide thee corn enough: for a grievous famine will accompany the siege. Wheat - All sorts of grain are to be provided, and all will be little enough. One vessel - Mix the worst with the best to lengthen out the provision. Ezekiel 4:10”

“4:9-17 The near-starvation diet of eight ounces of food and a jar of water for each day represent siege rations and reflect a desperate situation in which there was not enough of any one kind of grain to make a whole loaf.”

“wheat: Eze 4:13, Eze 4:16 millet: Dochan in Arabic, dokhn the holcus dochna of Forskal, is a kind of millet, of considerable use as a food; the cultivation of which is described by Browne. fitches: or, spelt, Kussemim is doubtless ζεα, or spelt, as Aquila and Symmachus render here; and so LXX and Theodotion, ολυρα. In times of scarcity it is customary to mix several kinds of coarser grains with the finer, to make it last the longer. three: Eze 4:5 Ezekiel 4:10”

“The third symbolical act. - Eze 4:9. And do thou take to thyself wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and spelt, and put them in a vessel, and prepare them as bread for thyself, according to the number of the days on which thou liest on thy side; three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat it. Eze 4:10. And thy food, which thou eatest, shall be according to weight, twenty shekels for a day; from time to time shalt thou eat it. Eze 4:11. And water shalt thou drink according to measure, a sixth part of the hin, from time to time shalt thou drink it. Eze 4:12. And as barley cakes shalt thou eat it, and shalt bake it before their eyes with human excrement. Eze 4:13. And…”