In order to show that the conditions in Jerusalem will be very severe while it is being attacked, Ezekiel must eat food that is strictly rationed. All he is allowed to eat each day is a very small loaf of bread. This loaf must be made from a mixture of different grains to show that the famine in the city will be so severe that there will not be enough wheat or barley to make proper bread. The bread will have to be made from small quantities of grain and scraps of food that the people can scavenge.

And you: Not all translations retain this phrase, but it may be rendered “Now” (Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible).

Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt: Wheat and barley are cereal crops from which bread is made. Beans are nourishing seeds that grow in pods. They are usually eaten boiled or roasted. Lentils also grow in pods. They are like small peas and are eaten in soups or stews (compare Gen 25.34). Neither beans nor lentils are normally used in flour to make bread. Millet and spelt are cereal crops like wheat, but they are not as good as wheat for making bread. The fact that God tells Ezekiel to mix beans, lentils, millet and spelt with wheat and barley shows that food will be scarce in Jerusalem and there will not be enough of the better grain available.

In some cultures some of these grains and seeds may be unknown. Any that are known can be included, but rather than introduce borrowed words with zero meaning, we recommend the following:

• For wheat and barley, translators may use “grain for making bread,” or they may use a comparison with something known, for example, “seeds [or, grains] like rice for making bread.”

• For beans and lentils, they may say “seeds that people cook.”

• For millet and spelt, they may use “other grains” or “other edible seeds.”

But translators might need a footnote to indicate that some of these seeds are not good for bread. Alternatively, translators can try to make clear the significance of the mixture that Ezekiel used. There are some models below.

And put them into a single vessel, and make bread of them, that is, mix them all together in one container and grind them into flour and bake a loaf of bread from them. The text does not mention grinding, but simply says to put them all in one bowl and make them into bread. However, it will be helpful in many languages to add “grind them into flour for making bread.” New International Version says “put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself.” This rendering suggests that God told Ezekiel to collect enough seeds to last the whole time he was lying on his side. This is unlikely, and it is better to assume that each day Ezekiel was supposed to gather seeds, mix them, grind them into flour, and bake one small loaf. This reflects the day-to-day existence of the people in the besieged city better. In many languages it will be more logical to mention the vessel, or bowl, before the ingredients of the loaf; for example, Contemporary English Version has “Get a large bowl. Then mix together wheat, barley, beans, lentils, and millet, and make some bread.”

During the number of days that you lie upon your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it: The bread that Ezekiel had to bake was to be his only food during the time he was lying on his side. There is a slight problem here, because according to verses 4-6, Ezekiel had to lie on his left side for 390 days and on his right side for 40 days. This is a total of 430 days. Some scholars have suggested that the reference to 40 days in verse 6 was added later; originally, Ezekiel wrote only about the 390 days. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has tried to solve the problem in a different way by rendering your side as “the left side.” Neither of these solutions is really satisfactory. It is best to translate the text as it stands despite the inconsistency that results. Translators may render this sentence as “This is what you will eat during the three hundred and ninety days that you are lying on your side.” For the textual problem concerning three hundred and ninety days, see the comments on 4.5.

And the food which you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: During the time Ezekiel was tied up by God and was lying on his side, his food was severely rationed. The loaf of bread each day was only to weigh twenty shekels, that is, about 230 grams (8 ounces). It is acceptable to say “a very small loaf.”

Once a day you shall eat it is literally “from time to time you must eat it,” which means that Ezekiel was to eat the bread at same time each day. Revised Standard Version misses the sense of the Hebrew here. Revised English Bible is better with “eaten at a set time each day” (similarly New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Century Version). A possible model for this clause and the previous one is “You must only eat a small loaf of eight ounces once a day at the same time every day.”

Some models that combine verses 9-10 are:

• “Take some wheat, barley, and seeds of rubbish grass. Mix them all together in one bowl [and grind them] and bake some bread. Make a loaf of about 200 grams. This is all you may eat, and you must eat it at the same time each day. Do this for all the 390 days that you lie on your side.

• “Get a bowl and bake some bread. There won’t be enough wheat and barley to make it, so find other kinds of seeds to put with it. Mix them all together [and grind them] and make a very small loaf. This is all you may eat, and you must eat it at the same time each day. Do this for all the 390 days that you lie on your side.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .