The staff of bread - Bread is so called because it is that on which the support of life mainly depends.With astonishment - With dismay and anxiety at the calamities which are befalling them. read more
Ezekiel 4:16-17. Behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem I will cause a scarcity of bread in Jerusalem, 2 Kings 25:3; and deprive it of the chief support of man’s life. And they shall eat their bread by weight and with care Here we have a declaration of the meaning of what the prophet was ordered to do, Ezekiel 4:10-11. It was intended to signify, that during the siege, the people of Jerusalem should eat their food very sparingly, and with great anxiety, for fear they should... read more
4:1-7:27 JUDGMENT AGAINST JERUSALEMSiege and exile (4:1-17)Prophets often acted their messages instead of, or in addition to, speaking them. Ezekiel drew a rough picture of Jerusalem on a brick, placed the brick on the ground, then with sticks, stones, clay and markings in the sand, he modelled a siege of the city. The message to the exiles was that they had no chance of an early return to Jerusalem. On the contrary, Jerusalem could expect further attack. God would not defend the city; rather... read more
I will break . Reference to Pentateuch (Leviticus 26:26 ). Occurr ing again in Ezekiel 5:16 ; Ezekiel 14:13 ; but nowhere else in O.T. read more
consume away , &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Leviticus 26:39 ). Compare Ezekiel 24:23 ; Eze 24:33 . to ("pine away "). App-92 . read more
16. staff of bread—bread by which life is supported, as a man's weight is by the staff he leans on (Leviticus 26:26; Psalms 105:16; Isaiah 3:1). by weight, and with care—in scant measure (Ezekiel 4:10). read more
17. astonied one with another—mutually regard one another with astonishment: the stupefied look of despairing want. read more
The food 4:9-17This second dramatization took place while Ezekiel was acting out the first 390 days of the siege of Jerusalem with the brick and the plate (Ezekiel 4:1-8). Whereas the main drama pictured the siege as a judgment from God, this aspect of it stressed the severe conditions that would exist in the city during the siege. read more
All these conditions were to symbolize how people back in Jerusalem were going to have to eat to live during the siege. They would have to eat sparingly because the famine caused by the siege would be severe. read more
Get Bible verse every day in your inbox
Read on Mobile
The Pulpit Commentary - Ezekiel 4:17
Consume away for their iniquity, etc. Another echo from the book which had entered so largely into the prophet's education (see Le 26:39, where the Hebrew for "pine" is the same as that here rendered "consume"). To the wretchedness of physical privation there was to be added the consciousness of the sufferers that it was caused by their own evil deeds. read more