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.

“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 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.

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 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.

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 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 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 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.

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 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.

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 So you shall set your face to the siege of Jerusalem, and shall strengthen your arm, and shall prophesy against it.

Keep your face towards 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.

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 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.

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 shall eat your food by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shall you eat them.

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

11 And you shall drink water by measure, even from time to time you shall drink the sixth part of a hin.

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

12 And you shall eat them [as] a barley cake: you shall bake them before their eyes in man's dung.

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 you shall say, Thus says the Lord God of Israel; Thus shall the children of Israel eat unclean things among the Gentiles.

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, 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.

“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 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.

“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, 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 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 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.

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