Ezekiel 4

1 “Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you, and draw on it the city of Jerusalem.

And thou, son of man, take thee a brick, and thou shalt set it before thy face, and shalt portray on it the city, [even] Jerusalem.

2 Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp to it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it on all sides.

And thou shalt besiege it, and build works against it, and throw up a mound round about it, and pitch camps against it, and set up engines round about.

3 Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

And take thou to thyself an iron pan, and thou shalt set it [for] an iron wall between thee and the city: and thou shalt set thy face against it, and it shall be in a siege, and thou shalt besiege it. This is a sign to the children of Israel.

4 Then lie down on your left side and place the iniquity of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their iniquity for the number of days you lie on your side.

And thou shalt lie upon thy left side, and lay the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, according to the number of the hundred and fifty days [during] which thou shalt lie upon it: and thou shalt bear their iniquities.

5 For I have assigned to you 390 days, according to the number of years of their iniquity. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

For I have appointed thee their iniquities for a number of days, for a hundred and ninety days: so thou shalt bear the iniquities of the house of Israel.

6 When you have completed these days, lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned to you 40 days, a day for each year.

And thou shalt accomplish this, and [then] shalt lie on thy right side, and shalt bear the iniquities of the house of Juda forty days: I have appointed thee a day for a year.

7 You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it.

So thou shalt set thy face to the siege of Jerusalem, and shalt strengthen thine arm, and shalt prophesy against it.

8 Now behold, I will tie you up with ropes so you cannot turn from side to side until you have finished the days of your siege.

And, behold, I have prepared bonds for thee, land thou mayest not turn from thy one side to the other, until the days of thy siege shall be accomplished.

9 But take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. This is what you are to eat during the 390 days you lie on your side.

Take thou also to thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and bread-corn; and thou shalt cast them into one earthen vessel, and shalt make them into loaves for thyself; and thou shalt eat them a hundred and ninety days, according to the number of the days [during] which thou sleepest on thy side.

10 You are to weigh out twenty shekels of food to eat each day, and you are to eat it at set times.

And thou shalt eat thy food by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat them.

11 You are also to measure out a sixth of a hin of water to drink, and you are to drink it at set times.

And thou shalt drink water by measure, even from time to time thou shalt drink the sixth part of a hin.

12 And you shall eat the food as you would a barley cake, after you bake it over dried human excrement in the sight of the people.”

And thou shalt eat them [as] a barley cake: thou shalt bake them before their eyes in man's dung.

13 Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.”

And thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Thus shall the children of Israel eat unclean things among the Gentiles.

14 “Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”

Then I said, Not so, Lord God of Israel: surely my soul has not been defiled with uncleanness; nor have I eaten, that which died of itself or was torn of beasts from my birth until now; neither has any corrupt flesh entered into my mouth.

15 “Look,” He replied, “I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you may bake your bread over that.”

And he said to me, Behold, I have given thee dung of oxen instead of man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy loaves upon it.

16 Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.

And he said to me, Son of man, behold, I break the support of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight and in want; and shall drink water by measure, and in a state of ruin:

17 So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.

that they may want bread and water; and a man and his brother shall be brought to ruin, and they shall pine away in their iniquities.