THEOSISJerome of Stridon
You are to gather wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, placing them into a single container to prepare bread according to the number of days you will lie on your side: for three hundred and ninety days, you will consume this bread. Your daily sustenance shall weigh twenty shekels, and you will eat it at intervals. You are to drink water measured as one-sixth of a hin, at your discretion. This bread is to be made as barley loaves baked in ashes, and you will cover it with human excrement before their eyes. The term translated as spelt refers to what the Hebrew calls schasamim; the Seventy and Theodotion rendered it as ὂλυπαν, interpreted differently by others as oats or spelt.
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Aquila and Simmachus rendered it as ζέα or ζεία, referring to what we term spelt, while the LXX includes "earthen" regarding the vessel. The prophet's actions are a prophetic sign of the forthcoming famine and deprivation facing Israel. Just as people in times of scarcity seek only what can fill them rather than pleasurable sustenance, the prophet gathers wheat, barley, lentils, millet, and oats into a single vessel, creating three hundred and ninety loaves, partaken one each day, weighed to twenty shekels or staters. Each shekel, equal to four drachmas, means that here we refer to bread that weighs ten ounces—sufficient for life, rather than mere survival. Scarcity extends to water, as you are commanded to consume a sixth of a hin daily. The hin constitutes two Attic χόας, roughly equivalent to two Italic sextaries, with a sixth of this measure being the equivalent of one-third of an Italic sextary. This food and drink sustain life but do not enhance strength. The phrase "from time to time" implies consumption from evening to evening, though some interpret it as yearly. The loaves, resembling barley bread baked in ashes and covered with human waste, are presented for those to eat—not merely in ignorance but intended to provoke horror rather than disgust. Notably, during the three hundred and ninety days of lying on the left side, the loaves are mandated while the forty days on the right are absent, indicating that punishment differs for those who have some awareness of God compared to those who have fully turned away from true understanding. Spiritually speaking, we might suggest that the Jewish people, despite their transgression against God, continue to consume bread baked in ashes, blending wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and oats—some food for humans, others for livestock. Though they appear to believe in one God, their denial of the Son reduces their sustenance to barley for cattle and beans, causing bloating of the stomach and mental burden, which even the Pythagoreans rejected as food. Esau relinquished his birthright for lentils. Millet serves as sustenance for rural inhabitants and animals, while oats or spelt are given to mute creatures. It is noted in the Seventy that Elijah, fleeing from Jezebel, found bread baked in ashes, emblematic of persecution and want, and was fed by ravens, who, not finding nourishment within Israel, drew from the provisions of the unclean tribes. Likewise, the law read without understanding serves as bread under ashes, cloaked in human excrement. Thus, the Apostle Paul states he regarded the benefits of the law and past observances as refuse, aiming to gain Christ.