>>13601629You're making me quote huffpost unironically, I hope you're happy.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ezekiel-4-9-bread-name_n_5bb67559e4b01470d04fda8fhttps://archive.md/PCCq0>“Ezekiel is a prophet during the last days of Jerusalem before the Babylonians destroyed the city and the temple in 586 BCE,” Yarbrough told HuffPost. In this section, “God [is] sending Ezekiel out into the plain ― into a wilderness beyond the city ― and gives to him a series of directions that Ezekiel is supposed to enact.” Prophets make prophecies and perform prophetic acts, and Yarbrough says that both of those in Ezekiel are related to “the coming doom of Jerusalem.” >We’ll get back to bread in a second. Just know that at this time, the Babylonian Empire is rising and is about to go to war with Judah (of the Kingdom of Judah fame), and Ezekiel is predicting doom because “Judah has turned its back on God, and now God has turned his back on Judah,” Yarbrough told HuffPost....
>In Ezekiel 4:12, he is commanded to “eat the food as you would a loaf of barley bread; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel.” But why?! “Because it’s representative of the fact that you don’t have cattle,” Yarbrough explained. “You don’t have camels around because of the siege. Human excrement is all you’ve got to build fires with. That’s how devastated the city is going to be during the siege by the Babylonians.” Don’t worry, in Ezekiel 4:15, God says the prophet can “bake it over cow dung instead.” 