Then you will do as I have done: You will not cover your lips or eat the bread of mourners.
Parallel translations
- WEB You shall do as I have done: you shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.
- KJV And ye shall do as I have done: ye shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.
- NKJV And you shall do as I have done; you shall not cover your lips nor eat man’s bread of sorrow.
- NASB And you will do just as I have done; you will not cover your mustache, and you will not eat the bread of other people.
- NLT Then you will do as Ezekiel has done. You will not mourn in public or console yourselves by eating the food brought by friends.
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
The people will respond to this catastrophe exactly as Ezekiel did, without the usual mourning. Their grief will be too overwhelming for ordinary rites.
Overview
God says the exiles will imitate the prophet, not covering their lips nor eating mourners' bread. The scale of the disaster, the fall of Jerusalem and the temple, will leave them stunned beyond customary lament. Ezekiel's restrained grief thus prophetically enacts the numbness that awaits them.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Amos 6:9–10And if there are ten men left in one house, they too will die.
- Ps 78:64His priests fell by the sword, but their widows could not lament.
- Ezek 24:16–17“Son of man, behold, I am about to take away the desire of your eyes with a fatal blow. But you must not mourn or weep or let your tears flow.
- Jer 47:3at the sound of the galloping hooves of stallions, the rumbling of chariots, and the clatter of their wheels. The fathers will not turn back for their sons; their hands will hang limp.
- Jer 16:4–7“They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried, but will lie like dung on the ground. They will be finished off by sword and famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth.”
- Job 27:15His survivors will be buried by the plague, and their widows will not weep for them.
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 24:22 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.