16 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:
(Verse 16, 17.) And he said to me: Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and with dismay; so that when bread and water are lacking, each one shall stumble to his brother, and they shall waste away in their iniquities. The Hebrew word Mate () is interpreted as staff in the first edition of Aquila, and as firmament in the second edition and by Symmachus and Theodotion. But what he had shown through his work, he also demonstrates through his speech, and the silence of both the left and right sides, and the ash bread mixed with the six varieties of spices, signifying the evils of the world, he points to the fact that a famine of food and an incredible shortage of water will occur in Jerusalem, so that everyone will fall to their brother, hoping for help from another, which they do not foresee in themselves. For it is the nature of humans, when pressed by evils and the weight of distress, to have more confidence in what is close at hand than in themselves: and they waste away in their iniquities, while suffering everything because of their iniquities. And I fear lest this breaking of bread may also be found in our Jerusalem, in which the vision of peace is seen, which the Lord crushes when he is angry, and judges us unworthy of his bread. And if only we could at least merit to receive him with weight and solicitude, and wet the dry tongue with excessive dryness, like the last finger of Lazarus (Luke 16). But with the Church lacking in bread and water, a man will fall against his brother, and everywhere there is discord, as our Christ's tunic is torn apart by those who even the soldiers in the Savior's passion dared not tear apart (John 19); and as we waste away in our iniquities, for we do not possess the justice of God. It is written in Jeremiah that the little ones, that is, the common people of the Church, sought bread, and there was no one to break it for them (Lamentations 4:4). But Paul, truly a man of the Church, knew that Christ had broken the legal bread and given it to the disciples to distribute. He confidently speaks: The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the Body of Christ? (I Cor. X, 16.) And those who are weak and in need of the milk of infancy cannot eat the staff or the strength of bread, nor can they receive solid food. And nothing strengthens the mind of the one who eats like the bread of life, of which it is written: And the bread strengthens the heart of man (Psal. CLXXXIII, 15).
[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 4:16-17