Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 4:10

"And thy food which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it." — Ezekiel 4:10 (ASV)

By weight, twenty shekels a day. —The weight of the shekel is somewhat differently estimated by different authorities. The best computations fix it at about 220 grains, and this would make the allowance of twenty shekels equal to something less than eleven ounces, scarcely enough to sustain life.

“Meat” is here used, as often in Scripture, to mean any kind of food. The extreme scarcity of food is also indicated by its being weighed rather than measured. “From time to time” means at set intervals of time (see 1 Chronicles 9:25), here no doubt once a day. Only the longer period of 390 days is mentioned here, but the same command no doubt applied to both periods.