[4] Some have concluded on account of this passage, that throughout the prophetic word wherever "days" are mentioned, they mean "years." This is incorrect. The "year-day" theory is not a scriptural one. Where we find days, it means days unless the text itself, as it is here in Ezekiel, explains the days as years. [5] Exod. xxviii:38-43; Lev. v:1, 17, vii:8, x:17, etc. =III. The Sign of the Famine and the Defiled Bread.= The siege of Jerusalem had been portrayed in the tile sign; the hardships in divine judgments in the second and the third sign describes additional punishments to come upon Jerusalem. Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof. And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shall thou eat it. Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink. And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight. And the Lord said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them (verses 9-13). Then the Priest-Prophet, horrified at the defilement he was to be subjected to, spoke to Jehovah and received an answer from Him granting his request and giving further instructions about the sign. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth. Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith. Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment: That they may want bread and water, and be astonished one with another, and consume away for their iniquity (verses 14-17). This sign then shows the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem and what was to come upon the people during the period of their punishment. The wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and fitches[6] were to be put into one vessel, because a little of each was available. To eat things by weight and not to be satisfied with it, was announced through Moses as one of the threatened judgments. "And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight; and ye shall eat and not be satisfied" (Lev. xxvi:26). The sign meant famine as the Lord told Ezekiel (verse 16). [6] Or spelt, a kind of corn.