And you shall do as I have done; you shall not cover your lips nor eat man’s bread of sorrow.
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.
- BSB Then you will do as I have done: You will not cover your lips or eat the bread of mourners.
- 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 6:9–10It will happen, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die.
- Ps 78:64Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep.
- Ezek 24:16–17Son of man, behold, I will take away from you the desire of your eyes with a stroke: yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, neither shall your tears run down.
- Jer 47:3At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers don’t look back to their children for feebleness of hands;
- Jer 16:4–7“They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth.”
- Job 27:15Those who remain of him shall be buried in death. His widows shall make no lamentation.
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.