Ezekiel 4

1 “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.

Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it a city, even Jerusalem.

2 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.

And lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it. Also set camps against it, and plant battering rams against it round about.

3 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.

And take thou to thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city. And set thy face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

4 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.

Moreover lie thou upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that thou shall lie upon it, thou shall bear their iniquity.

5 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.

For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be a number of days to thee, even three hundred and ninety days. So thou shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

6 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.

And again, when thou have accomplished these, thou shall lie on thy right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days, each day for a year. I have appointed it to thee.

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

And thou shall set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with thine arm uncovered, and thou shall prophesy against it.

8 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.

And, behold, I lay bands upon thee, and thou shall not turn thee from one side to the other, till thou have accomplished the days of thy siege.

9 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.

Also take thou to thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread of it, according to the number of the days that thou shall lie upon thy side, even three hundred and ninety days, thou shall eat of it.

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

And thy food which thou shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. Thou shall eat it from time to time.

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

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

12 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.”

And thou shall eat it as barley cakes, and thou shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.

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

And Jehovah said, Even thus shall the sons of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations where I will drive them.

14 “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.”

Then I said, Ah lord Jehovah! Behold, my soul has not been polluted. For from my youth up even till now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of beasts, neither has abominable flesh come into my mouth.

15 “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.”

Then he said to me, See, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shall prepare thy bread of it.

16 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.

Moreover he said to me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness, and they shall drink water by measure, and in dismay,

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

that they may lack bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.