The story of Ezekiel's bread is found in the fourth chapter of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a prophet who was instructed by God to symbolically and graphically portray the misery and hardships they were going to face as when they were invaded and conquered. There was going to hunger and suffering. The passage is about more than bread. It is about the consequences of turning away from God. Read the chapter.
In verse nine we find the ingredients Ezekiel was to use. Ezekiel was told, “And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt, and put them into a singlevessel, and make bread of them. During the number of days that you lie upon your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it”. Those ingredients would indicate very hard times. These were the grains a beggar might acquire as he was being given handouts. He was to only bake bread for one day so there would not have been time to sprout the grains and beans.
Wheat and barley were the most common grains used for bread making. Using anything except wheat and barley for bread was only done when they absolutely had to. The beans and lentils were a good source of protein at least. The main point though is people would be glad to eat what they could.
Note: the beans would have to be fava or broad beans. This is the only Old World bean known. All other beans were introduced into Europe after the discovery of the New World.
At first God told Ezekiel to bake his bread in a human dung fire but Ezekiel protested and in verse fifteen, "See, I will let you have cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread."
So here are the ingredients:
Wheat
grain
Barley grain
Fava beans
Spelt grains
Lentils
Millet
Water to make into cakes
And the directions:
Gather enough dried cow manure patties to make a good hot fire. Pound and grind 10 ounces to 1 pound (1) of the ingredients into a flour and add water to make into a cake. Put the cake on the hot coals and bake. When the cake is done remove from the fire and brush off the ashes. Serve with water.
That's it. The bread along with about a pint of water a day was to be Ezekiel’s diet. Doesn't sound very good does it? It wasn't intended to be. Ezekiel was to eat this in front of witnesses to remind them of the hard times ahead. You can try making this yourself, but don't forget to be authentic you have to bake it on that “cow patty” fire.
The first settlers here where I live in Texas found grass and desert with no trees. Sometimes the only source of fuel was dried cattle manure. I've heard several old timers telling about spending several days each year gathering dried manure from pastures to be used for fuel.
(1) The amount of grain to be used is not certain. The maximum given by any reference work is 1 pound; the least suggests about 10 ounces.
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