Yehezkiel 4:15-17

4:15 So he said to me, “All right then, I will substitute cow’s manure instead of human excrement. You will cook your food over it.”

4:16 Then he said to me, “Son of man, I am about to remove the bread supply ¹  in Jerusalem. ²  They will eat their bread ration anxiously, and they will drink their water ration in terror 4:17 because they will lack bread and water. Each one will be terrified, and they will rot for their iniquity. ³ 

Yehezkiel 5:16-17

5:16 I will shoot against them deadly, ⁴  destructive ⁵  arrows of famine, ⁶  which I will shoot to destroy you. ⁷  I will prolong a famine on you and will remove the bread supply. ⁸  5:17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. ⁹  Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, ¹⁰  and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

[4:16]  ¹ tn Heb, “break the staff of bread.” The bread supply is compared to a staff that one uses for support.

[4:16]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[4:17]  ³ tn Or “in their punishment.” Ezek 4:16-17 alludes to Lev 26:26, 39. The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here, 3:18, 19; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment for iniquity.”

[5:16]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew word carries the basic idea of “bad, displeasing, injurious,” but when used of weapons has the nuance “deadly” (see Ps 144:10).

[5:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “which are/were to destroy.”

[5:16]  ⁶ tn The language of this verse may have been influenced by Deut 32:23.

[5:16]  ⁷ tn Or “which were to destroy those whom I will send to destroy you” (cf. NASB).

[5:16]  ⁸ tn Heb, “break the staff of bread.” The bread supply is compared to a staff that one uses for support. See 4:16, as well as the covenant curse in Lev 26:26.

[5:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “will bereave you.”

[5:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “will pass through you.” This threat recalls the warning of Lev 26:22, 25 and Deut 32:24-25.