“Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and with fearfulness.
Parallel translations
- KJV Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with carefulness;
- BSB “Son of man, eat your bread with trembling, and drink your water with quivering and anxiety.
- NKJV “Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and anxiety.
- NASB “Son of man, eat your bread with trembling, and drink your water with quivering and anxiety.
- NLT “Son of man, tremble as you eat your food. Shake with fear as you drink your water.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Ezekiel is to eat and drink with trembling and fear, picturing the anxiety of those under siege.
Overview
The prophet acts out the dread that will grip Jerusalem when food and water become scarce and survival uncertain. His shaking meal preaches the coming terror more powerfully than words. The sign warns that sin's consequences bring not just loss but consuming fear.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Lam 5:9We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness.
- Ps 60:2–3You have made the land tremble. You have torn it. Mend its fractures, for it quakes.
- Ps 80:5You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure.
- Lev 26:26When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight. You shall eat, and not be satisfied.
- Deut 28:48therefore you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck, until he has destroyed you.
- Lev 26:36“‘As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword. They will fall when no one pursues.
- Ezek 4:16–17Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure, and in dismay;
- Job 3:24For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.
- Deut 28:65Among these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul.
- Ps 102:4–9My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread.
- Ezek 23:33You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 12:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.