“staff of bread.” “Bread” was a common idiom for food. “Bread” came to be used by metonymy for food in general because bread was the main food in the culture and a staple of life. Bread was called “the staff” or “the staff of life” because the people leaned on it for their staple food (cp. Lev. 26:26; Ps. 105:16; Ezek. 5:16).