John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 4:12-13

"And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it in their sight with dung that cometh out of man. And Jehovah said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations whither I will drive them." — Ezekiel 4:12-13 (ASV)

This vision properly belongs to the ten tribes, and for this reason, I have said that God’s vengeance is not to be considered as applying only to the siege of the city, but as extending longer. After the Prophet had spoken of the siege of Jerusalem, he adds that their reward was prepared for the children of Israel, because a just God was the avenger of each people.

Therefore, as God punished the remnant who still remained at Jerusalem, so He avenged the wickedness of the ten tribes in exile at Babylon. For this reason, the Prophet is ordered to cook a cake with dung: that is, he is commanded to take human dung instead of fuel. Nor does he simply say dung, but the dung of men. Presently, the application follows.

Thus the children of Israel shall eat their polluted bread among the Gentiles. Now, therefore, we see that the Jews are at last drawn to judgment because they had not been so moved by the slaughter of their brethren as to repent. In the meantime, however, the wrath of God was evident against the ten tribes, because among the Gentiles, those miserable exiles were compelled to eat their polluted bread.

We know that cakes are made of the finest flour, for the purer the flour, the more delicate the bread. But the Prophet is ordered to make cakes of barley, and then to cook them in dung, because that uncleanness was forbidden by the Law (Leviticus 5:3; Leviticus 7:21).

Therefore, God signifies that the Israelites were so rejected that they were no different from polluted nations. For the Lord had separated them, as we know, from the rest of the world; but from the time they mingled with the filth of the wicked, at last, after long forbearance, they were altogether rejected, as is stated here.

By this figure, a universal pollution is signified, as if He had said that nothing is any longer holy or sacred in Israel because they are mingled with the pollutions of all nations. Finally, the impure bread encompasses all kinds of ungodliness.

Now, when he says among the Gentiles, it means that they would be such inhabitants of the lands to which they were driven that they would be not only exiles but also banished from the land of Canaan, which was their inheritance.

In short, a disinheritance is marked here, when the Jews are said to be driven here and there, so as not to dwell in the promised land.