Ezekiel 4:9-17

New American Standard Bible 1995

Defiled Bread

⁹ “But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and ^(A)spelt, put them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days. ¹⁰ Your food which you eat shall be ^(B)twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time. ¹¹ The water you drink shall be the sixth part of a hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time. ¹² You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human ^(C)dung.” ¹³ Then the Lord said, “Thus will the sons of Israel eat their bread ^(D)unclean among the nations where I will banish them.” ¹⁴ But I said, “^(E)Ah, Lord ^[a]God! Behold, I have ^(F)never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what ^(G)died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any ^(H)unclean meat ever entered my mouth.” ¹⁵ Then He said to me, “See, I will give you cow’s dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread.” ¹⁶ Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to ^(I)break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by ^(J)weight and with anxiety, and drink water by ^(K)measure and in horror, ¹⁷ because bread and water will be scarce; and they will be appalled with one another and ^(L)waste away in their iniquity.