Ezekiel 4

¹ 'For your part, son of man, take a brick and lay it in front of you; on it scratch a city, Jerusalem.

² You are then to besiege it, trench round it, build earthworks, pitch camps and bring up battering-rams alround.

³ Then take an iron pan and place it as though it were an iron wal between you and the city. Then fixyour gaze on it; it is being besieged and you are besieging it. This is a sign for the House of Israel.

⁴ 'Lie down on your left side and take the guilt of the House of Israel on yourself. You wil bear their guiltfor as many days as you lie on that side.

⁵ Allowing one day for every year of their guilt, I ordain that you bear it for three hundred and ninety days;this is how you wil bear the House of Israel's guilt.

⁶ And when you have finished doing this, you are to lie down again, on your right side, and bear the guiltof the House of Judah for forty days. I have set the length for you as one day for one year.

⁷ Then fix your gaze on the siege of Jerusalem, raise your bared arm and prophesy against her.

⁸ Look, I am going to tie you up and you wil not be able to turn over from one side to the other until theperiod of your seclusion is over.

⁹ 'Now take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, mil et and spelt; put them al in the same pot and make theminto bread for yourself. You are to eat it for as many days as you are lying on your side -- three hundred andninety days.

¹⁰ Of this food, you are to weigh out a daily portion of twenty shekels and eat it a little piece at a time.

¹¹ And you are to ration the water you drink -- a sixth of a hin -- drinking that a little at a time.

¹² You are to eat this in the form of a barley cake baked where they can see you, on human dung.'

¹³ And Yahweh said, 'This is how the Israelites wil have to eat their defiled food, wherever I dispersethem among the nations.'

¹⁴ I then said, 'Lord Yahweh, my soul is not defiled. From my childhood until now, I have never eaten ananimal that has died a natural death or been savaged; no tainted meat has ever entered my mouth.'

¹⁵ 'Very wel ,' he said, 'I grant you cow-dung instead of human dung; you are to bake your bread on that.'

¹⁶ He then said, 'Son of man, I am going to cut off Jerusalem's food supply; in their extremity, the foodthey eat wil be weighed out; to their horror, the water they drink wil be rationed,

¹⁷ until there is no food or water left, and they fall into a stupor and waste away because of their guilt.'