Ezekiel 4:15 kjv
Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.
Ezekiel 4:15 nkjv
Then He said to me, "See, I am giving you cow dung instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your bread over it."
Ezekiel 4:15 niv
"Very well," he said, "I will let you bake your bread over cow dung instead of human excrement."
Ezekiel 4:15 esv
Then he said to me, "See, I assign to you cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread."
Ezekiel 4:15 nlt
"All right," the LORD said. "You may bake your bread with cow dung instead of human dung."
Ezekiel 4 15 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Ezekiel 4:15 | "Then he said, 'Look, I have permitted you to use cow dung instead of human dung to prepare your bread.'" | Command regarding preparation |
| Genesis 3:23 | "...So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken." | Curse of labor & hardship |
| Deuteronomy 28:56 | "The most tender and delicately bred woman among you, who would not venture so much as to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her tenderness and delicacy, will look with distrust at her husband, her own child, and her own child's child." | Desolation & deprivation |
| Jeremiah 5:18 | "Even in those days, declares the Lord, I will not make an end of you." | Persistence of judgment |
| Lamentations 4:4 | "Even the infant in arms has tongue to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the young children ask for bread, but no one breaks it for them." | Extreme hunger |
| Hosea 9:4 | "They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord, nor shall their sacrifices please him." | Refusal of acceptable offerings |
| Matthew 24:19 | "Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing in those days!" | Dire conditions during tribulation |
| Luke 21:23 | "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse their infants in those days, for there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people." | Severity of the coming days |
| Revelation 18:8 | "Therefore her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the mighty Lord God has judged her." | Sudden & total judgment |
| Isaiah 1:20 | "But if you refuse and are rebellious, you will be devoured by the sword"; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." | Consequences of disobedience |
| Jeremiah 17:6 | "He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He dwells in parched places of the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited." | Condition of exile |
| Leviticus 26:29 | "You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat." | Utmost famine during judgment |
| Deuteronomy 32:39 | "See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god besides me. I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; no one can deliver from my hand." | God's sovereign power |
| 2 Kings 25:3 | "And the city was broken into, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king's garden. And the Chaldeans were all around the city. And the king fled by way of the Arabah." | Siege of Jerusalem |
| Jeremiah 39:2 | "and at last Zedekiah, king of Judah, was told, 'The Chaldeans have besieged Jerusalem.'..." | Similar historical context |
| Ezekiel 4:12 | "And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baked in a cake upon the dung, mixed with your own human excrement.'" | Initial directive |
| Ezekiel 4:13 | "And the Lord said, 'Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread, un- clean, among the nations to which I will drive them.'" | Unclean food for the dispersed |
| Psalm 80:6 | "You make us an object of quarrel for our neighbors, and our enemies mock us to our face." | Reproach among nations |
| Isaiah 53:3 | "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not." | Suffering of the Servant |
| Ezekiel 33:25 | "You say, ‘The way of the Lord is not equal.’ Hear now, O house of Israel! My way is not equal; your ways are not equal.” | God’s justice vindicated |
Ezekiel 4 verses
Ezekiel 4 15 Meaning
The verse details the continuation of God's judgment upon Ezekiel and Israel through symbolic actions. Specifically, it describes the duration and manner of eating unleavened bread. This action signifies hardship and a time of distress.
Ezekiel 4 15 Context
Ezekiel is commissioned to perform symbolic acts that vividly portray the impending judgment of God upon Judah and Jerusalem. These actions are not for Ezekiel's personal suffering but serve as a powerful visual prophecy for the exiled community in Babylon. The preceding verses detail the precise way bread is to be prepared and eaten, emphasizing its impurity and the hardship associated with it. This verse specifies a modification to the earlier, more extreme instruction regarding using human excrement for fuel, permitting cow dung instead. This substitution likely reflects a slight softening, possibly allowing for a more practical, yet still profoundly symbolic, representation of severe famine and the resultant desperation.
Ezekiel 4 15 Word Analysis
- "Then": This conjunction signals a continuation of the discourse and instruction.
- "he": Refers back to the Lord speaking to Ezekiel.
- "said": The divine command.
- "Look": An attention-grabbing imperative, directing Ezekiel's focus to a specific point.
- "I": Emphatic self-reference of God.
- "have permitted": The Lord allows this change in instruction, showing His control over even the direst circumstances. It is not an endorsement of impurity but a provision within a divinely ordained judgment.
- "you": Ezekiel, the recipient of the command.
- "to use": To employ or utilize.
- "cow dung": The Hebrew word for "dung" is baresh, referring to animal excrement. Cows were common livestock, and their dung was often used as fuel in arid regions due to its availability and burning properties. The use of animal dung is less contaminating than human dung in the eyes of the Mosaic Law.
- "instead of": Signifies a replacement or substitution in the instruction.
- "human dung": The Hebrew word for "dung" here is qeh–a (or tzo'ah in some textual traditions), specifically referring to human excrement, which was considered highly unclean according to Levitical Law. The initial command used this term.
Words-group by words-group analysis:
- "I have permitted you to use cow dung instead of human dung": This phrase highlights God's nuanced command within His judgment. While the foundational sin is rebellion, the expression of the judgment, while still severe and symbolic of defilement, is modified. The shift from human to animal dung can be interpreted as:
- A slight allowance for practicality.
- A still potent symbol of shame and impurity, but avoiding the extreme, potentially self-cannibalistic implications of human dung fuel.
- Reflecting the ultimate degradation where even basic necessities are reduced to the most humble and impure materials, demonstrating how sin debases all aspects of life.
- Cow dung, though permitted, still falls under the umbrella of uncleanliness, as it was not explicitly permitted for sacred cooking under the Law, reinforcing the theme of broken covenant.
Ezekiel 4 15 Bonus Section
The prophetic significance of Ezekiel’s dietary restrictions is multifold. It’s not merely about suffering, but about embodying the reality of sin's consequences for a covenant people. The use of impure materials for food preparation foreshadows a period where Israel would be unable to offer pure sacrifices and would eat their bread ceremonially unclean among the nations, a direct antithesis to the purity mandated for worship in the Temple. This act served as a constant, tangible reminder to the exiles of why they were in Babylon and what their sin had cost them. Furthermore, the distinction between human and animal dung could reflect the differing levels of perceived impurity, with human waste being the more abhorrent in Mosaic law, thereby allowing for a severe, yet somewhat tempered, symbol of judgment compared to the absolute extremity of the first directive.
Ezekiel 4 15 Commentary
The substitution of cow dung for human dung in preparing the bread, as commanded to Ezekiel, is a graphic symbol of the extreme hardship, famine, and defilement Israel would face during the Babylonian siege and exile. While cow dung was a common fuel, its use for bread-making, especially under divine command, underscores a profound desecration. The initial instruction involving human excrement would have been even more revolting and representative of utter desperation, perhaps bordering on cannibalistic implications within a symbolic framework. The alteration, while seemingly a concession, still marks bread as unclean, fitting for a people exiled among the nations, experiencing severe shortages and facing God’s wrath. It communicates that the people’s unfaithfulness has led them to a state where the most basic sustenance is contaminated and associated with disgrace.