Ezekiel 4
1 [Yahweh also said to me, ] “You human, take a large clay tablet/brick and put it in front of you. Then on the [engrave/draw] on it lines that represent Jerusalem.
And you, son of man, take a back and put it before you and on it make a picture of a town, even Jerusalem.
2 [draw figures around it to represent enemy soldiers who will] surround the city. Make mounds around it and a dirt ramp up against the [around the city]. [figures around it that represent] (battering rams/heavy logs that will break though the walls).
And make an attack on it, shutting it in, building strong places against it, and making high an earthwork against it; and put up tents against it, placing engines all round it for smashing down its walls.
3 Then take an iron pan, and place it [to be] like an iron wall between you [the drawing of] the city. Then turn your face toward the drawing. It will symbolize [enemy troops will] surround the city to attack it. That will be a warning to the Israeli people [MTY].
And take a flat iron plate, and put it for a wall of iron between you and the town: and let your face be turned to it, and it will be shut in and you will make an attack on it. This will be a sign to the children of Israel.
4 Then lie on your left side, and stay like that for 390 days. That [symbolize that the Israeli people will be punished for] their sins; you must lie like that one day for each year during which they will be punished.
Then, stretching yourself out on your left side, take the sin of the children of Israel on yourself: for as long as you are stretched out, so long will the sin of the children of Israel be on you.
For I have had the years of their sin measured for you by a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: and you will take on yourself the sin of the children of Israel.
6 After that, lie down again. This time, lie on your right side for 40 days. That [symbolize that the Israeli people will be punished more] for their sins, one day for each [during which they will be punished].
And when these days are ended, turning on your right side, you are to take on yourself the sin of the children of Judah: forty days, a day for a year, I have had it fixed for you.
7 Turn your face [the drawing of] Jerusalem and bare your [like a soldier does who prepares to go into a battle] [MTY], and prophesy [what will happen to] the city.
And let your face be turned to where Jerusalem is shut in, with your arm uncovered, and be a prophet against it.
8 [You will not be able to move; it will be as though] I have tied you with ropes in order that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have [symbolizing how many years the city] will be (besieged/surrounded by enemy soldiers).
And see, I will put bands on you; and you will be stretched out without turning from one side to the other till the days of your attack are ended.
9 [Before you do that, ] take some wheat and barley, beans, lentils, spelt and millet, and put them in a [storage] jar, and use that to bake [for yourself]. That is what you will eat during the 390 days while you lie on your [left] side.
And take for yourself wheat and barley and different sorts of grain, and put them in one vessel and make bread for yourself from them; all the days when you are stretched on your side it will be your food.
10 You will eat (8 ounces/a small loaf) of bread each day.
And you are to take your food by weight, twenty shekels a day: you are to take it at regular times.
11 [Also] measure out (1.5 pints/0.6 liter) of water to drink each day.
And you are to take water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: you are to take it at regular times.
12 Eat that bread like you would eat a loaf of barley bread. But use your own dried dung for fuel to bake the bread while people are watching.
And let your food be barley cakes, cooking it before their eyes with the waste which comes out of a man.
13 That will symbolize that the Israeli people will be forced to eat food that is unacceptable to me when they are living in the nations to which I will force them to go.”
And the Lord said, Even so the children of Israel will have unclean bread for their food among the nations where I am driving them.
14 Then I said, “No, Yahweh God![Do not force me to do that]! I have never caused myself to become unacceptable to you [by doing anything like that]. From the time when I was young, I have never eaten meat of any [animal] that was found dead or that had been killed by wild animals. And I have never eaten any meat that is unacceptable to you.”
Then I said, Ah, Lord! see, my soul has never been unclean, and I have never taken as my food anything which has come to a natural death or has been broken by beasts, from the time when I was young even till now; no disgusting flesh has ever come into my mouth.
15 Yahweh replied, “Okay, I will allow you to bake your bread using dried cow manure instead of human [for fuel].”
Then he said to me, See, I have given you cow's waste in place of man's waste, and you will make your bread ready on it.
16 Then he said to me, “You human, I will cause the supply of food to Jerusalem to be cut off. [Then] the people will eat the small amounts of food and drink the small amounts of [that the government permits them to have], and they will be [very] distressed and anxious as they do that,
And he said to me, Son of man, see, I will take away from Jerusalem her necessary bread: they will take their bread by weight and with care, measuring out their drinking-water with fear and wonder:
17 because water and food will be very scarce. They will see each other becoming extremely thin, and they will be appalled; [but this will happen] because they are being punished [for the sins that they have committed].”
So that they may be in need of bread and water and be wondering at one another, wasting away in their sin.
