Ezekiel
Chapter 4
1 You too, human, get a clay tablet, put it in front of you, and draw on it the city of Jerusalem.
2 Surround it with a siege, make a wall against it, pile up dirt against it; put a camp around it, and place battering rams against it all around.
3 Also, get an iron pan and place it as an iron wall between you and the city. Face it and it will be under siege, and you will be the attacker. This will be a sign for the people of Israel.
4 Lie on your left side and take on Israel’s sins. For as many days as you lie there, you’ll carry their sins.
5 I have put on you the years of their wrongs, equal to the number of days, three hundred and ninety days: so you will carry the wrongs of the people of Israel.
6 After you finish those days, lie on your right side again, and you will carry the sin of Judah’s people for 40 days; I have set each day equal to one year.
7 So you will look towards Jerusalem under attack, show your arm, and speak against it.
8 Look, I will tie you up so you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the time of your siege.
9 Gather some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt. Put them in a container and use them to make bread for yourself. Eat it for the 390 days you lie on your side.
10 The food you will eat must be weighed—twenty shekels each day. Eat it at regular times.
11 You will also drink a measured amount of water, one-sixth of a hin; you will drink it at set times.
12 You will eat it like barley bread and cook it over human waste where they can see you.
13 God said, “The people of Israel will eat unclean bread among the foreign nations where I will send them.”
14 I said, “Oh God! Look, I have kept my soul clean. Since I was young until now, I have never eaten anything that died by itself or was torn apart, nor have I ever put disgusting meat in my mouth.”
15 He told me, “Look, I have given you cow poop instead of human poop, and you will use it to cook your bread.”
16 He also told me, “Human, look, I will make food scarce in Jerusalem: they will ration bread and eat it anxiously; they will measure water and drink it in shock.”
17 They will need bread and water, be shocked at each other, and waste away because of their wrongdoing.