Ezekiel 4

1 “Son of man, you are to take a brick, put in front of you, and draw a picture of 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 Show that it's under siege: establish a siege perimeter all around it, build a siege ramp against it, set up the enemy camps beside it, and put battering rams on all sides 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 Put an iron plate between yourself and the city so it's like an iron wall. Face the city and demonstrate that it's under siege, and that you are the one attacking it. This is a symbolic warning to the people 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 take the Israelites' sins on yourself. You will carry their sins for the number of days you lie on your side.

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 will make you stay there for 390 days, representing the number of years of their sins. You will bear the sins of the Israelites.

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 Once you have finished doing this for these days, then you are to lie down again, but this time on your right side, and carry the sins of the people of Judah. I will make you stay there for 40 days, one day for every 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 Keep your face towards the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and 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 Be ready, because now I'm going to tie you up with ropes so you can't move from side to side until the days of your siege are over.

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 Get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use them to make bread for yourself. This is what you are to eat for the 390 days that you lie on your side.

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 You are allowed to eat twenty shekels weight of food each day, and you are to eat it at regular times.

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

11 Measure out a sixth of a hin of water to drink, and you are to drink it at regular times.

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

12 You are to eat the bread as you would a barley loaf. You are to bake it over a fire burning dried human excrement as everyone watches.”

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 Then the Lord said, “This is the way the Israelites will eat their unclean bread among the nations where I'll exile 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 “Please no, Lord God!” I answered. “I have never made myself unclean. I haven't eaten anything found dead or killed by wild animals from the time I was young until now. I've never put unclean meat in 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 “All right,” he said. “I'll let you use cow manure instead of human excrement You can bake your bread over a fire using 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 Then he went on, “Son of man, watch! I am going to put a stop to Jerusalem's food supply. Worried sick, they will eat bread rationed by weight. Despairing at what's happening, they will drink water measured in small amounts.

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 Running out of food and water, they will be horrified as they look at one another wasting away because of their sins.”

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