The vote was 217 to 210.
Republican leaders said the bill would make needed changes to a program that has grown out of control.
Democrats, though, called the cuts to the food stamp program draconian and said millions of hungry people would lose their benefits.
"It's a sad day in the people's House when the leadership brings to the floor one of the most heartless bills I have ever seen," said Representative James McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts. "Its terrible policy trapped in a terrible process."
The bill would cut $40 billion from the food stamp program over the next 10 years. It would also require adults between 18 and 50 without minor children to find a job or to enroll in a work training program in order to receive benefits. It would also limit the time those recipients could get benefits to three months.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, nearly four million people would be removed from the food stamp program under the House bill. A Census Bureau report released on Tuesday found that the food stamp program had kept about four million people above the poverty level and had prevented millions more from sinking further into poverty.
Historically, the food stamp program has been part of the farm bill, a huge piece of legislation that had routinely been passed every five years, authorizing financing for the nation's farm and nutrition programs. But in July, House leaders split the bill's farm and nutrition sections into separate measures, passing the farm legislation over Democrats' objections.
The move came after the House rejected a proposed farm bill that would have cut $20 billion from the food stamp program. Conservative lawmakers helped kill the bill, saying the program needed deeper cuts.
The passage of the House food stamp bill most likely ends any chance of getting a new five-year farm bill. Senate leaders have criticized the House nutrition bill and have said they will not consider it.
"The House bill will never see the light of day in the Senate," Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan and the chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said during a floor speech on Wednesday.
