Ezekiel 4

1 “But you, son of man, take a brick for yourself and place it before you. Then carve the city of Jerusalem on it.

“And as for you, son of man, take up for yourself a tablet, and you shall set it before you. And you shall draw upon it the city of Jerusalem.

2 Then lay siege against it, and build forts against it. Raise up an assault ramp against it and set camps around it. Place battering rams all around it.

And you shall set up a blockade against it, and you shall build fortifications, and you shall put together a rampart, and you shall encamp opposite it, and you shall place battering rams around it.

3 Then take for yourself an iron pan and use it as an iron wall between yourself and the city and set your face against it, for it will be under siege, and you are to put the siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

And you shall take up for yourself an iron frying pan, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city. And harden your face against it, and it shall be under a siege, and you shall surround it. This is a sign to the house of Israel.

4 Then, lie on your left side and put the sin of the house of Israel on it; you will carry their sin for the number of the days that you lie down against the house of Israel.

And you shall sleep on your left side. And you shall place the iniquities of the house of Israel on it by the number of days that you will sleep on it. And you shall take upon yourself their iniquity.

5 I myself am assigning to you one day to represent each year of their punishment: 390 days! In this way, you will carry the sin of the house of Israel.

For I have given to you the years of their iniquity, by the number of the days: three hundred and ninety days. And you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

6 When you have completed these days, then lie down a second time on your right side, for you will carry the sin of the house of Judah for forty days. I am assigning to you one day for each year.

And when you will have completed this, you shall sleep a second time, on your right side, and you shall assume the iniquity of the house of Judah for forty days: one day for each year; one day, I say, for each year, have I given to you.

7 Set your face toward Jerusalem that is under siege, and with your arm uncovered prophesy against it.

And you shall turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and your arm shall be extended. And you shall prophesy against it.

8 For behold! I am placing bonds on you so you will not turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

Behold, I have surrounded you with chains. And you shall not turn yourself from one side to the other side, until you have completed the days of your siege.

9 Take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in a single container and make bread for yourself according to the number of the days that you will lie upon your side. For 390 days you will eat it.

And you shall take for yourself wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and vetch. And you shall set them in one vessel, and you shall make for yourself bread by the number of days that you will sleep upon your side: three hundred and ninety days shall you shall eat from it.

10 The food you will eat will be by weight, twenty shekels per day, and you will eat it at set times each day.

But your food, which you will eat, shall be in weight twenty staters a day. You shall eat it from time to time.

11 Then you will drink water, measured out to a sixth of a hin, and you will drink it at set times.

And you shall drink water by measure, one sixth part of a hin. You shall drink it from time to time.

12 You will eat it as barley cakes, but you will bake it on excrement of human dung within their sight!”

And you shall eat it like barley bread baked under ashes. And you shall cover it, in their sight, with the dung that goes out of a man.”

13 For Yahweh says, “This means that the bread that the people of Israel will eat will be unclean, there among the nations where I will banish them.”

And the Lord said: “So shall the sons of Israel eat their bread, polluted among the Gentiles, to whom I will cast them out.”

14 But I said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh! I have never been unclean! I have never eaten either anything that died or anything killed by animals, from my youth until now, and foul meat has never entered my mouth!”

And I said: “Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God! Behold, my soul has not been polluted, and from my infancy even until now, I have not eaten anything that has died of itself, nor that which has been torn up by beasts, and no unclean flesh at all has entered into my mouth.”

15 So he said to me, “Look! I have given you cow manure instead of human dung so you can prepare your bread over that.”

And he said to me: “Behold, I have given to you cow manure in place of human dung, and you shall make your bread with it.”

16 He also said to me, “Son of man! Behold! I am breaking the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread while rationing it in anxiety and drink water while rationing it in trembling.

And he said to me: “Son of man, behold: I will crush the staff of bread in Jerusalem. And they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety. And they will drink water by measure and with anguish.

17 Because they will lack bread and water, every man will be dismayed at his brother and waste away because of their iniquity.”

So then, when bread and water fail, each one may fall against his brother. And they shall waste away in their iniquities.”