Ezekiel 4

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.

²And 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.

³And 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.

⁴And 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.

⁵For 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.

⁶And 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.

⁷And you shall turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and your arm shall be extended. And you shall prophesy against it.

⁸Behold, 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.

⁹And 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.

¹⁰But your food, which you will eat, shall be in weight twenty staters a day. You shall eat it from time to time.

¹¹And you shall drink water by measure, one sixth part of a hin. You shall drink it from time to time.

¹²And 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.”

¹³And the Lord said: “So shall the sons of Israel eat their bread, polluted among the Gentiles, to whom I will cast them out.”

¹⁴And 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.”

¹⁵And 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.”

¹⁶And 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.

¹⁷So then, when bread and water fail, each one may fall against his brother. And they shall waste away in their iniquities.”

Ezekiel 4

¹Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:

²And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.

³Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

⁴Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.

⁵For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

⁶And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

⁷Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.

⁸And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.

⁹Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.

¹⁰And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.

¹¹Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.

¹²And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.

¹³And the Lord said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.

¹⁴Then said I, Ah Lord God! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.

¹⁵Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.

¹⁶Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:

¹⁷That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.