What Does Ezekiel 4:11 Mean in the King James?

Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.

Ezekiel 4:11 · KJV

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

Here even water arrives by measure: survival continues, but every drink bears the mark of constriction.

THE MEANING

The verse names how constriction reaches even the simplest need: water is portioned, and drinking happens only from time to time. What sustains life becomes a schedule of survival.

THE ROOT

תִּשְׁתֶּה

tishteh

GROWS FROM

שתה

sh-t-h

to drink

“drink” in this verse is tishteh. The verb repeats, placing drinking under the same measured limit: a small portion, then an interval. Its branch ⁨מִשְׁתֶּה⁩ names a drinking feast, so the same root can hold abundance and rationed necessity; here the feast-like possibility has narrowed to survival.

ALSO GROWS

shatah: to drink

שָׁתָה

This verb form shares the root of the repeated drinking in the verse.

mishteh: a drinking feast or banquet

מִשְׁתֶּה

The branch carries an image of shared abundance, sharpening the contrast with water given by measure.

THE PATTERN

Constricted life makes basic nourishment scarce; wholeness is pictured as hunger and thirst ending.

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:

Ezekiel 4:16 · KJVMeasured water appears alongside bread by weight, showing scarcity governing daily nourishment.

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.

Leviticus 26:26 · KJVBread is delivered by weight, and even eating fails to satisfy, making deprivation a bodily condition.

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

Revelation 7:16 · KJVThe opposite horizon is life without hunger or thirst, where the constriction named here has ended.

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:

Ezekiel 4:16 · KJV

The phrase “water by measure” repeats, and this verse places it alongside bread by weight and the breaking of bread’s staff. The small water portion is part of a whole life narrowed to counted sustenance.

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