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.

“You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even 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.

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 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.

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 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.

“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 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 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 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.

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

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

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

Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time you shall eat it.

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

You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin. From time to time you shall drink.

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

You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of 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.”

The LORD said, “Even thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, amongst the nations where I will drive them.”

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!”

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

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

that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.