What Does Ezekiel 4:13 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.
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 makes exile bodily: displacement does not stop at the border; it enters the bread.
THE MEANING
Displacement reaches the table: even daily sustenance can carry the mark of the place where you are forced to live. The verse names the LORD as the one driving the people there and leaves the humiliation of that condition exposed. Its weight falls on the loss of home and ritual belonging, not on food alone.
THE ROOT
טָמֵא
tame
GROWS FROM
טמא
To be unclean or ritually impure.
“defiled” in this verse is tame. The verse applies this condition directly to the bread: the food itself is called unclean. That makes the loss concrete and bodily, as daily eating carries the mark of displacement.
ALSO GROWS
tum’ah: Impurity; a state of uncleanness.
טֻמְאָה
The noun names the condition that the verse places on the bread.
timme: To make or treat as unclean.
טִמֵּא
This verbal branch shows the root can describe the act that brings about the condition named here.
אַדִּיחֵם
addichēm
GROWS FROM
נדח
To drive away, banish, or thrust out.
“drive” in this verse is addichēm. The verb depicts imposed removal, not travel freely chosen. The people are driven into another place, where even their bread bears the condition of life outside their home.
ALSO GROWS
niddach: One driven away; an outcast.
נִדָּח
This branch makes visible the state of the people whom the verb drives out.
nidchei: Outcasts; those driven away.
נִדְחֵי
The plural form shows how banishment can become a condition shared by a whole people.
THE PATTERN
Food becomes a public marker of purity and belonging, and its status carries social consequences.
They shall not dwell in the LORD’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.THE THREAD
They shall not dwell in the LORD’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.Hosea uses the same root טמא (ṭ-m-ʾ, “be unclean”) for what Israel eats in Assyria. Together, the verses show exile entering ordinary eating, where place and ritual condition meet.
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