Ezekiel 4

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 As for you, son of man, take a clay tablet; lay it in front of you, and draw on it a city (Jerusalem).	1 “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 Raise a siege against it: build a tower, lay out a ramp, pitch camps, and set up batteringrams all around.	2 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 an iron griddle and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Fix your gaze on it: it shall be in the state of siege, and you shall besiege it. This shall be a sign for the house of Israel.	3 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 you shall lie on your left side, while I place the sins of the house of Israel upon you. As many days as you lie thus, you shall bear their sins.	4 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 For the years of their sins I allot you the same number of days, three hundred and ninety, during which you will bear the sins of the house of Israel.	5 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 finish this, you are to lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the sins of the house of Judah forty days; one day for each year I have allotted you.	6 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 Fixing your gaze on the siege of Jerusalem, with bared arm you shall prophesy against it.	7 And you shall turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and your arm shall be extended. And you shall prophesy against it.
8 See, I will bind you with cords so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.	8 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 Again, take wheat and barley, and beans and lentils, and millet and spelt; put them in a single vessel and make bread out of them. Eat it for as many days as you lie upon your side, three hundred and ninety.	9 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 eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; each day the same.	10 But your food, which you will eat, shall be in weight twenty staters a day. You shall eat it from time to time.
11 And the water you drink shall be the sixth of a hin by measure; each day the same.	11 And you shall drink water by measure, one sixth part of a hin. You shall drink it from time to time.
12 For your food you must bake barley loaves over human excrement in their sight, said the LORD.	12 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 Thus the Israelites shall eat their food unclean among the nations where I scatter them.	13 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 "Oh no, Lord GOD!" I protested. "Never have I been made unclean, and from my youth till now, never have I eaten carrion flesh or that torn by wild beasts; never has any unclean meat entered my mouth."	14 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 Very well, he replied, I allow you cow's dung in place of human excrement; bake your bread on that.	15 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 said to me: Son of man, I am breaking the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread which they have weighed out anxiously, and they shall drink water which they have measured out fearfully,	16 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 so that, owing to the scarcity of bread and water, everyone shall be filled with terror and waste away because of his sins.	17 So then, when bread and water fail, each one may fall against his brother. And they shall waste away in their iniquities.”