< Jezekiel 4 >

1 And you, son of man, take you a brick, and you shall set it before your face, and shall portray on it the city, [even] Jerusalem.
“Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you, and draw on it the city of Jerusalem.
2 And you shall 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.
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.
3 And take you to yourself an iron pan, and you shall set it [for] an iron wall between you and the city: and you shall set your face against it, and it shall be in a siege, and you shall besiege it. This is a sign to the children of Israel.
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.
4 And you shall lie upon your 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 you shall lie upon it: and you shall bear their iniquities.
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.
5 For I have appointed you their iniquities for a number of days, for a hundred and ninety days: so you shall bear the iniquities of the house of Israel.
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.
6 And you shall accomplish this, and [then] shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquities of the house of Juda forty days: I have appointed you a day for a year.
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.
7 So you shall set your face to the siege of Jerusalem, and shall strengthen your arm, and shall prophesy against it.
You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it.
8 And, behold, I have prepared bonds for you, land you may not turn from your one side to the other, until the days of your siege shall be accomplished.
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.
9 Take you also to you wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and bread-corn; and you shall cast them into one earthen vessel, and shall make them into loaves for yourself; and you shall eat them a hundred and ninety days, according to the number of the days [during] which you sleep on your side.
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.
10 And you shall eat your food by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shall you eat them.
You are to weigh out twenty shekels of food to eat each day, and you are to eat it at set times.
11 And you shall drink water by measure, even from time to time you shall drink the sixth part of a hin.
You are also to measure out a sixth of a hin of water to drink, and you are to drink it at set times.
12 And you shall eat them [as] a barley cake: you shall bake them before their eyes in man's dung.
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.”
13 And you shall say, Thus says the Lord God of Israel; Thus shall the children of Israel eat unclean things amongst the Gentiles.
Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.”
14 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.
“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.”
15 And he said to me, Behold, I have given you dung of oxen instead of man's dung, and you shall prepare your loaves upon it.
“Look,” He replied, “I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you may bake your bread over that.”
16 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 lack; and shall drink water by measure, and in a state of ruin:
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.
17 that they may lack bread and water; and a man and his brother shall be brought to ruin, and they shall pine away in their iniquities.
So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.

< Jezekiel 4 >