What Does Ezekiel 4:10 Mean in the King James?
And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse measures survival twice: by how much the body receives and by how long it waits between portions.
THE MEANING
The verse names nourishment under severe constraint: twenty shekels for a day, eaten at intervals. The limit reaches beyond the food itself; even when the body eats is part of the ration. Survival has become both a quantity and a waiting period.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁקָל
mishqal
GROWS FROM
שׁקל
To weigh; to assign or measure by weight.
“Weight” can sound like a unit attached to the food, but מִשְׁקָל (mishqal, weight) comes from שׁקל (sh-q-l; shaqal, to weigh): the ration is presented as the result of active weighing. The stated shekels make the limit tangible; even nourishment is portioned as a quantity the body may receive.
ALSO GROWS
shaqal: To weigh.
שָׁקַל
This verb names the action held inside מִשְׁקָל (mishqal): the ration is weighed out.
sheqel: A unit of weight.
שֶׁקֶל
The shekel gives the daily ration a concrete, countable boundary.
THE PATTERN
Nourishment becomes a measure of dependence or deprivation when it is reckoned in daily portions.
And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.Give us this day our daily bread.THE THREAD
Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:Both verses use מִשְׁקָל (mishqal, weight), from שׁקל (sh-q-l; shaqal, to weigh), so the same root shapes the ration in both lines. Ezekiel 4:16 names the broken “staff of bread,” revealing the deprivation carried by the measured amount in 4:10.
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