“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 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).