Ezekiel 4

¹ ‘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 all round.

³ Then take an iron pan and place it as if it were an iron wall between you and the city. Then turn to 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 sin of the House of Israel on yourself. I am making you bear their sin for as many days as you lie there.

⁵ I myself have set the years they will sin at a hundred and ninety days; during these you are to bear the sin of the House of Israel.

⁶ And at the end of these days, you are to lie down again on your right side and bear the sin of the House of Judah for forty days. I have set the length for you as one day for one year.

⁷ And you are to turn towards the siege of Jerusalem, lift your bare arm and prophesy against it.

⁸ I have laid bonds on you, and you must not turn over until the period of your seclusion is finished.

⁹ ‘You must then take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt; put them all in the same pot and make yourself some bread. You are to eat it for as many days as you have been lying on your side, a hundred and ninety days.

¹⁰ As regards this food you are to measure out a daily portion of twenty shekels and make it last the whole day.

¹¹ And you are to drink water sparingly; your drink is to be the sixth of a hin and to last the whole day.

¹² Take this food in the shape of a barley cake baked where they can see you, over human dung.

¹³ And say, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says this: This is the way the Israelites will have to eat their defiled food, wherever I disperse them among the nations”.’

¹⁴ I then said, ‘Lord Yahweh, my soul is not defiled. From my childhood until now, I have never eaten an animal that has died a natural death or been savaged; no unclean flesh has ever entered my mouth.’

¹⁵ ‘Very well,’ he said ‘I grant you cow’s dung instead of human dung; you are to bake your bread on that.’

¹⁶ He then said, ‘Son of man, I mean to destroy the stock of bread in Jerusalem; in their distress they will eat bread strictly weighed; in terror they will drink water grudgingly measured,

¹⁷ since bread and water will be scarce; they will all pine and waste away as a result of their sins.