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 a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on 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.

Lay siege against it, build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it. Also set camps against it and plant battering rams against it all around.

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.

Take for yourself an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city. Then set your face towards it. It will 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.

“Moreover lie 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 appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days. So you 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.

“Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have appointed forty days, each day for a year, to you.

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

You shall set your face towards the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm 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.

Behold, I put ropes on you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to the other, until you have accomplished 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 for yourself also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel. Make bread of it. According to the number of the days that you will lie on your side, even three hundred and ninety days, you 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.

Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time you shall 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 water by measure, the sixth part of a hin. From time to time you shall 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.”

You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you 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.”

The LORD said, “Even thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, amongst 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 GOD! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals. No abominable meat has 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, “Behold, I have given you cow’s dung for man’s dung, and you shall prepare your bread on 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. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness. They will 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, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.