Ezekiel Chapter 4

Siege of Jerusalem Symbolized

¹ “Now, son of man, take a tablet and etch Jerusalem on it. ² Lay a siege against it with a siege wall and ramp, pitch camps, and position battering rams all around it. ³ Then set up an iron plate as a wall between you and the city. Face it and press the siege against it. It’s an omen for Israel.

⁴ “Lie down on your left side, and I’ll lay Israel’s punishment on you. You’ll bear their punishment for the number of days you lie on it. ⁵ Lie like that one day for each of the 390 years they’ve sinned. ⁶ When you’ve finished, lie down on your right side, and bear Judah’s sin. I’ve assigned you 40 days, one for each year. ⁷ Then you’ll face the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it. ⁸ I’ve tied you up with ropes so you can’t turn from one side to the other till you’ve finished the days of your siege.

Ezek 4:1-8

⁹ “Take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in one container and bake bread. Eat it for the 390 days you’re lying on your side. ¹⁰ Once a day eat 8 oz ^{20 shekels} of food ¹¹ and drink a quart ^{⅙ hin} of water. ¹² Eat it like a barley cake after you’ve baked it in front of them over human feces. ¹³ That’s how the Israelites will eat their bread unclean among the nations where I’ll banish them.”

¹⁴ But I said, “Lord Yahveh, since I was a kid, I’ve never defiled myself by eating ceremonially unclean meat, anything that died, anything an animal had torn in pieces.”

¹⁵ He said, “I’ll give you cow manure instead of human feces to bake your bread. ¹⁶ I’m going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They’ll ration bread by weight with fear and water by measure in alarm. ¹⁷ Bread and water will be scarce; people will look at one another in dismay and waste away in their sin.”