26 When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight: and you shall eat, and not be satisfied.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
And when I have broken the staff of your bread. By these words God implies, that although He should not punish them by the sterility of the land, still He was prepared with other means for destroying them by famine. We shall indeed see hereafter that, when God was wroth, the earth in a manner shut up her bowels so as to produce no food; and that the heaven also grew hard so as not to fertilize it with dew or rain. In a word, all unseasonableness of weather and infertility of soil is a sign of the curse of God; but now He goes further, viz., that although there should be no scarcity of food, still they should suffer from hunger, when He had taken away its nourishing qualities from their bread. This curse confirms the instruction which we have seen elsewhere, that man does not live by bread, but by the command of God, just as if the efficacy contained in the bread proceeded out of His mouth. (Deuteronomy 8:3.) And assuredly an inanimate thing could not give rigor to our senses except by the secret ordinance of God. He employs a very appropriate comparison, calling the support of bread, whereby man's strength is refreshed, "the staff;" as we see the old and weak leaning on their sticks as they walk, when otherwise they would totter and fall. God says, then, that it is in His power to break this staff, so that their bread should only fill their stomachs without refreshing their strength. Ezekiel has borrowed from Moses this figure, which he makes use of in several places, (Ezekiel 4:16; 5:16; and 14:13,) although he there adverts to two sorts of punishment, like another Prophet, when He says, "Ye have sown much and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that; earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes;" and again, "Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it;" (Haggai 1:6, 9;) for he points out scarcity of food as one of God's scourges, and the inability to profit by their abundance, as another; and with this Micah also accords, for after he has said, "Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied," he adds, "Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine." (Micah 6:14, 15.) But Moses, in order that the curse may be more apparent, says that there shall be abundance of bread; and also that there shall be no deception practiced in kneading and baking it; for that two [1] women shall come to one oven together, who may mutually observe whether weight is duly given. He implies, therefore, that there shall be abundance in their hands, and yet, when they are filled, they shall not be satisfied.
1 - C. is here at issue with the commentators in general. The usual view is that stated by Bush: "There shall be such a scarcity of bread that one ordinary oven shall answer for the baking of ten, that is a great many families; whereas in common circumstances one oven would serve (or rather be required) for one family." Dr. Kitto supposes that "ten families, represented by their females, clubbed their dough together, and the produce being no more than an ordinary supply for one family, it was baked in one oven instead of each family, as usual, making a separate baking. Afterwards the cakes thus baked were proportioned by weight to the respective contributors, so precious was the bread. This is implied in the words, shall deliver you your bread again by weight;' which shews that the bread was previously theirs, and had been baked for them, not that it was sold to them by weight."
Omit "and." "To break the staff of bread," was a proverbial expression for cutting off the supply of bread, the staff of life (Psalm 105:16; Ezekiel 4:16; Ezekiel 5:16; Ezekiel 14:13; compare Isaiah 3:1). The supply was to be so reduced that one oven would suffice for baking the bread maple by ten women for ten families, and when made it was to be dealt out in sparing rations by weight. See 2-Kings 6:25; Jeremiah 14:18; Lamentations 4:9; Ezekiel 5:12; Hosea 4:10; Micah 6:14; Haggai 1:6.
Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven - Though in general every family in the East bakes its own bread, yet there are some public bakehouses where the bread of several families is baked at a certain price. Moses here foretells that the desolation should be so great and the want so pressing that there should be many idle hands to be employed, many mouths to be fed, and very little for each: Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, etc.
[And] when I have broken the (n) staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one (o) oven, and they shall deliver [you] your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
(n) That is, the strength by which life is sustained, (Ezekiel 4:16, Ezekiel 5:16).
(o) One oven will be sufficient for ten families.
And when I have broken the staff of your bread,.... Brought a famine, at least a scarcity of provisions upon them, deprived them of bread, the staff of life, by which it is supported; or however made it very scarce among them, so that they had hardly a sufficiency to sustain nature, and perhaps the blessing of nourishment withheld from that; see Isaiah 3:1,
ten women shall bake your bread in one oven; for want of wood, according to Jarchi; or rather through scarcity of bread corn, they should have so little to bake every week, that one oven would be sufficient for ten families, which in a time of plenty each made use of one for themselves; and so Aben Ezra says, it was a custom in Israel for every family to bake in an oven by themselves, which they ate the whole week. Ten is a certain number for an uncertain, and denotes many, as in Zac 8:23. Making and baking bread was the work of women in the eastern countries, as we find it was particularly among the Persians (n), and continues to this day among the Moors and Arabs (o):
and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight; there being not enough for everyone to eat what they pleased, but were obliged to a rationed allowance, therefore everyone in the family should have their share delivered to him by weight; see Ezekiel 4:16,
and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied; not having enough to eat to satisfaction; or what they did eat, God would withhold a blessing from it for their nourishment, the reverse of Leviticus 26:5.
(n) Herodot. Polymnia, sive. l. 4. c. 187. (o) Shaw's Travels, p. 241. Ed. 2.
ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, &c.--The bread used in families is usually baked by women, and at home. But sometimes also, in times of scarcity, it is baked in public ovens for want of fuel; and the scarcity predicted here would be so great, that one oven would be sufficient to bake as much as ten women used in ordinary occasions to provide for family use; and even this scanty portion of bread would be distributed by weight (Ezekiel 4:16).
When I have broken the staff of your bread - By sending a famine or scarcity of bread, which is the staff and support of man's present life. Ten women - That is, ten or many families, for the women took care for the bread and food of all the family. By weight - This is a sign and consequence both of a famine, and of the baking of the bread of several families together in one oven, wherein each family took care to weigh their bread, and to receive the same proportion which they put in.
*More commentary available at chapter level.