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.

You also, son of man, take you a tile, and lay it before you, and portray on it the 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 a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set 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.

Moreover take you to you an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city: and set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you 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.

Lie you also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it: according to the number of the days that you shall lie on it you 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 laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shall you 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 when you have accomplished them, lie again on your right side, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed you each day for a year.

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

Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and your arm shall be uncovered, and you 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 will lay bands on you, and you shall not turn you from one side to another, till you have ended the days of your 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.

Take you also to you wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make you bread thereof, according to the number of the days that you shall lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days shall you eat thereof.

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

And your meat which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shall you eat it.

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

You shall drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shall you drink.

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

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 the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, 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 said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul has not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh 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 you cow’s dung for man’s dung, and you shall prepare your bread therewith.

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 care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:

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 want bread and water, and be astonished one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.