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Friday, November 14th, 2025
the Week of Proper 27 / Ordinary 32
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Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Ezekiel 4:12

This verse is not available in the MSG!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Bread;   Instruction;   Prayer;   Symbols and Similitudes;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Prophets;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Dung;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Fuel;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Agriculture;   Barley;   Dung;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Barley;   Beyond the River;   Dung;   Ezekiel;   Fuel;   Gestures;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Fuel;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Dung;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Bread;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Barley;   Dung;   Fuel;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Bread;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Food;   Fuel;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
You will eat it as you would a barley cake and bake it over dried human excrement in their sight.”
Hebrew Names Version
You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.
King James Version
And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.
English Standard Version
And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung."
New American Standard Bible
"You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung."
New Century Version
Eat your food as you would eat a barley cake, baking it over human dung where the people can see."
Amplified Bible
"You shall eat your food as barley cakes, having baked it in their sight over human dung."
World English Bible
You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And thou shalt eate it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it in the dongue that commeth out of man, in their sight.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung."
Legacy Standard Bible
You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung."
Berean Standard Bible
And you shall eat the food as you would a barley cake, after you bake it over dried human excrement in the sight of the people."
Contemporary English Version
Use dried human waste to start a fire, then bake the bread on the coals where everyone can watch you.
Complete Jewish Bible
[The bread] you eat is to be baked like barley cakes; you are to bake it before their eyes, using human dung as fuel."
Darby Translation
And thou shalt eat it [as] barley-cake, and thou shalt bake it in their sight with dung that cometh out of man.
Easy-to-Read Version
You must make your bread each day. You must get dry human dung and burn it. Then you must cook the bread over this burning dung. You must eat this bread in front of the people."
George Lamsa Translation
And you shall eat it as if you ate barley cakes, having baked it in their sight with the dung that comes out of men.
Good News Translation
You are to build a fire out of dried human excrement, bake bread on the fire, and eat it where everyone can see you."
Lexham English Bible
And as a bread-cake of barley you shall eat it, and with human excrement you shall bake it before their eyes."
Literal Translation
And you shall eat cakes of barley, and you shall bake it with dung of the excrement of man, in their sight.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Barly cakes shalt thou eate, yet shalt thou first strake the ouer with mas donge, yt they maye se it.
American Standard Version
And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it in their sight with dung that cometh out of man.
Bible in Basic English
And let your food be barley cakes, cooking it before their eyes with the waste which comes out of a man.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it in their sight with dung that cometh out of man.'
King James Version (1611)
And thou shalt eate it as barley cakes, & thou shalt bake it with doung that commeth out of man in their sight.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Barly cakes shalt thou eate, and them shalt thou bake in mans doung before their eyes.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And thou shalt eat them as a barley cake: thou shalt bake them before their eyes in man’s dung.
English Revised Version
And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it in their sight with dung that cometh out of man.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And thou schalt ete it as barli breed bakun vndur the aischis; and with `a toord that goith out of a man thou schalt hile, it bifore the iyen of hem.
Update Bible Version
And you shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.
Webster's Bible Translation
And thou shalt eat it [as] barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with human excrement in their sight.
New English Translation
And you must eat the food like you would a barley cake. You must bake it in front of them over a fire made with dried human excrement."
New King James Version
And you shall eat it as barley cakes; and bake it using fuel of human waste in their sight."
New Living Translation
Prepare and eat this food as you would barley cakes. While all the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread."
New Life Bible
Eat your food as you would barley cakes, making it ready in front of their eyes over a fire burning human waste."
New Revised Standard
You shall eat it as a barley-cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and as a barley cake, shalt thou eat it, - and the same with dung proceeding from man, shalt thou bake, before their eyes.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And thou shalt eat it as barley bread baked under the ashes: and thou shalt cover it, in their sight, with the dung that cometh out of a man.
Revised Standard Version
And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung."
Young's Literal Translation
A barley-cake thou dost eat it, and it with dung -- the filth of man -- thou dost bake before their eyes.

Contextual Overview

9"Next I want you to take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, dried millet and spelt, and mix them in a bowl to make a flat bread. This is your food ration for the 390 days you lie on your side. Measure out about half a pound for each day and eat it on schedule. Also measure out your daily ration of about a pint of water and drink it on schedule. Eat the bread as you would a muffin. Bake the muffins out in the open where everyone can see you, using dried human dung for fuel." 13 God said, "This is what the people of Israel are going to do: Among the pagan nations where I will drive them, they will eat foods that are strictly taboo to a holy people." 14 I said, " God , my Master! Never! I've never contaminated myself with food like that. Since my youth I've never eaten anything forbidden by law, nothing found dead or violated by wild animals. I've never taken a single bite of forbidden food." 15 "All right," he said. "I'll let you bake your bread over cow dung instead of human dung." 16Then he said to me, "Son of man, I'm going to cut off all food from Jerusalem. The people will live on starvation rations, worrying where the next meal's coming from, scrounging for the next drink of water. Famine conditions. People will look at one another, see nothing but skin and bones, and shake their heads. This is what sin does."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

cakes: a "round" thing, Genesis 18:6

Reciprocal: Ezekiel 21:6 - before

Cross-References

Genesis 4:3
Time passed. Cain brought an offering to God from the produce of his farm. Abel also brought an offering, but from the firstborn animals of his herd, choice cuts of meat. God liked Abel and his offering, but Cain and his offering didn't get his approval. Cain lost his temper and went into a sulk.
Genesis 4:17
Cain slept with his wife. She conceived and had Enoch. He then built a city and named it after his son, Enoch. Enoch had Irad, Irad had Mehujael, Mehujael had Methushael, Methushael had Lamech.
Genesis 4:23
Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, listen to me; you wives of Lamech, hear me out: I killed a man for wounding me, a young man who attacked me. If Cain is avenged seven times, for Lamech it's seventy-seven!
Leviticus 26:36
"As for those among you still alive, I'll give them over to fearful timidity—even the rustle of a leaf will throw them into a panic. They'll run here and there, back and forth, as if running for their lives even though no one is after them, tripping and falling over one another in total confusion. You won't stand a chance against an enemy. You'll perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will eat you up. Any who are left will slowly rot away in the enemy lands. Rot. And all because of their sins, their sins compounded by their ancestors' sins.
Hosea 9:17
My God has washed his hands of them. They wouldn't listen. They're doomed to be wanderers, vagabonds among the godless nations.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And thou shalt eat it [as] barley cakes,.... That is, the bread made of wheat, barley, beans, lentiles, millet, and fitches, was to be made in the form of barley cakes, and to be baked as they; not in an oven, but under ashes; and these ashes not of wood, or straw, or turf, but as follows:

and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of men, in their sight: the prophet was to take human dung, and dry it, and then cover the cakes or loaves of his mixed bread with it, and burn it over them, and with it bake it; which must be a very disagreeable task to him, and make the food very nauseous, both to himself and to the Jews, in whose sight it was done; and this shows scarcity of fuel, and the severity of the famine; that they had not fuel to bake with, or could not stay till it was baked in an oven, and therefore took this method; as well as points at what they were to eat when carried captive, as follows:

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In eastern countries where fuel is scarce the want is supplied by dried cow-dung laid up for the winter. Barley cakes were (and are) baked under hot ashes without an oven. The dung here is to be burned to ashes, and the ashes so employed.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 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 Ezekiel 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 siege would be obliged, literally, to use dried human ordure for fuel. The very circumstances show that this was the plain fact of the case. However, we find that the prophet was relieved from using this kind of fuel, for cow's dung was substituted at his request. See Ezekiel 4:15.


 
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