Ezekiel 4:9

"Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof; according to the number of days that thou shalt lie on thy side, even three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof. And thy food which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it. And thou shalt drink water by measure, the sixth part of a bin.' from time to time shalt thou drink."

In this paragraph Ezekiel is to be identified, not as a sin-bearer, but as a representation of the besieged and captive Israelites. The prophecy means that they shall suffer famine, severe food shortages, the ration of water, and all of the other rigors of a siege. Some of the measurements mentioned here may have varied a little from what we are told; but Cook gave "twenty shekels a day" as about nine ounces of food, and a "sixth part of a hin" of water as "about two pints" a day.[14] In any case, such restricted amounts must be considered as just about the minimum survival diet.

Some have thought that the mixing of all these edibles in one vessel was a ceremonial violation regarding unnatural mixtures (Leviticus 19:19); but the more likely understanding is that it indicates merely the scarcity of food. Wheat and barley were normally used by the rich and poor respectively, and this was also true of beans and lentils; but the millet, and spelt (fitches) were often used as food for animals.[15] The "fitches" (spelt) was a kind of wild wheat, resembling the seed of some grasses.[16] The picture that emerges is that of a family scraping together a small handful of half a dozen different products in order to find enough for a single piece of bread.