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 thou, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it a city, 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 lay siege against it, and build a tower against it, and cast up a mound against it; set a camp also against it, and place battering-rams against it round about.
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].
Moreover, take thou an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city; and set thy face against it, that it may be besieged; and lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house 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.
Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity.
But for the years of their iniquity I appoint thee days, three hundred and ninety days; so long shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house 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 thou hast brought them to an end, then lie upon thy right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have appointed thee a day for a year.
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 set thy face against besieged Jerusalem, and uncover thine arm, and prophesy 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 behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.
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.
Take thou also wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and spelt, and put them into one vessel, and make thereof thy bread for the number of days that thou shalt lie upon thy side; three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.
10 You will eat (8 ounces/a small loaf) of bread each day.
And thy food which thou eatest shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time shalt thou eat it.
11 [Also] measure out (1.5 pints/0.6 liter) of water to drink each day.
Thou shalt also drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from time to time shalt thou drink.
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.
Thou shalt also eat barley-cakes; and with dung that cometh out of man shalt thou bake them in their sight.
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 Jehovah said, Even thus shall the sons of Israel eat their polluted food among the nations, whither I will drive 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 said I: Ah! Lord Jehovah, behold, I have never been polluted; for from my youth until now have I not eaten that which died of itself, or was torn in pieces; neither hath unclean food 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: Behold, I give thee cow's dung for man's dung; and with that shalt thou prepare thy food.
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, 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 in amazement;
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 shall be in want of bread and water, and be astonished one at another, and consume away for their iniquity.
