Ezekiel 4

1 And you, son of man, take a back and put it before you and on it make a picture of a town, even Jerusalem.

“Son of man, you are to take a brick, put in front of you, and draw a picture of the city of Jerusalem on it.

2 And make an attack on it, shutting it in, building strong places against it, and making high an earthwork against it; and put up tents against it, placing engines all round it for smashing down its walls.

Show that it's under siege: establish a siege perimeter all around it, build a siege ramp against it, set up the enemy camps beside it, and put battering rams on all sides around it.

3 And take a flat iron plate, and put it for a wall of iron between you and the town: and let your face be turned to it, and it will be shut in and you will make an attack on it. This will be a sign to the children of Israel.

Put an iron plate between yourself and the city so it's like an iron wall. Face the city and demonstrate that it's under siege, and that you are the one attacking it. This is a symbolic warning to the people of Israel.

4 Then, stretching yourself out on your left side, take the sin of the children of Israel on yourself: for as long as you are stretched out, so long will the sin of the children of Israel be on you.

Then lie on your left side and take the Israelites' sins on yourself. You will carry their sins for the number of days you lie on your side.

5 For I have had the years of their sin measured for you by a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: and you will take on yourself the sin of the children of Israel.

I will make you stay there for 390 days, representing the number of years of their sins. You will bear the sins of the Israelites.

6 And when these days are ended, turning on your right side, you are to take on yourself the sin of the children of Judah: forty days, a day for a year, I have had it fixed for you.

Once you have finished doing this for these days, then you are to lie down again, but this time on your right side, and carry the sins of the people of Judah. I will make you stay there for 40 days, one day for every year.

7 And let your face be turned to where Jerusalem is shut in, with your arm uncovered, and be a prophet against it.

Keep your face towards the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it.

8 And see, I will put bands on you; and you will be stretched out without turning from one side to the other till the days of your attack are ended.

Be ready, because now I'm going to tie you up with ropes so you can't move from side to side until the days of your siege are over.

9 And take for yourself wheat and barley and different sorts of grain, and put them in one vessel and make bread for yourself from them; all the days when you are stretched on your side it will be your food.

Get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use them to make bread for yourself. This is what you are to eat for the 390 days that you lie on your side.

10 And you are to take your food by weight, twenty shekels a day: you are to take it at regular times.

You are allowed to eat twenty shekels weight of food each day, and you are to eat it at regular times.

11 And you are to take water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: you are to take it at regular times.

Measure out a sixth of a hin of water to drink, and you are to drink it at regular times.

12 And let your food be barley cakes, cooking it before their eyes with the waste which comes out of a man.

You are to eat the bread as you would a barley loaf. You are to bake it over a fire burning dried human excrement as everyone watches.”

13 And the Lord said, Even so the children of Israel will have unclean bread for their food among the nations where I am driving them.

Then the Lord said, “This is the way the Israelites will eat their unclean bread among the nations where I'll exile them.”

14 Then I said, Ah, Lord! see, my soul has never been unclean, and I have never taken as my food anything which has come to a natural death or has been broken by beasts, from the time when I was young even till now; no disgusting flesh has ever come into my mouth.

“Please no, Lord God!” I answered. “I have never made myself unclean. I haven't eaten anything found dead or killed by wild animals from the time I was young until now. I've never put unclean meat in my mouth.”

15 Then he said to me, See, I have given you cow's waste in place of man's waste, and you will make your bread ready on it.

“All right,” he said. “I'll let you use cow manure instead of human excrement You can bake your bread over a fire using that.”

16 And he said to me, Son of man, see, I will take away from Jerusalem her necessary bread: they will take their bread by weight and with care, measuring out their drinking-water with fear and wonder:

Then he went on, “Son of man, watch! I am going to put a stop to Jerusalem's food supply. Worried sick, they will eat bread rationed by weight. Despairing at what's happening, they will drink water measured in small amounts.

17 So that they may be in need of bread and water and be wondering at one another, wasting away in their sin.

Running out of food and water, they will be horrified as they look at one another wasting away because of their sins.”