Ezekiel 4

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

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 Take for yourself an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city. Then set your face toward it. It will be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

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 “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.

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.

5 For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

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 “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.

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 You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it.

And let your face be turned to where Jerusalem is shut in, with your arm uncovered, and be a prophet against it.

8 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.

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 “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 ninety days, you shall eat of it.

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

And you are to take your food by weight, twenty shekels a day: you are to take it at regular times.

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

And you are to take water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: you are to take it at regular times.

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

And let your food be barley cakes, cooking it before their eyes with the waste which comes out of a man.

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

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, “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!”

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 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.”

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 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;

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

So that they may be in need of bread and water and be wondering at one another, wasting away in their sin.