Ezekiel 4

Revised Geneva Translation

4 “You, also, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you and engrave the city of Jerusalem on it.

² “And lay siege against it, and build a siege wall against it, and pour a mound against it. Also, set the camp against it and lay engines of war against it, all around.

³ “Moreover, take an iron plate and set it as a wall of iron between yourself and the city, and direct your face toward it, and it shall be besieged. And you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the House of Israel.

⁴ “Also, sleep on your left side and lay the iniquity of the House of Israel upon it. According to the number of days that you shall sleep on it shall you bear their iniquity.

⁵ “For I have laid the years of their iniquity upon you, according to the number of days: three hundred ninety days. So shall you bear the iniquity of the House of Israel.

⁶ “And when you have completed them, sleep again on your right side. And you shall bear the iniquity of the House of Judah for forty days —a day for a year. I have appointed to you a day for a year.

⁷ “Therefore, you shall direct your face toward the siege of Jerusalem. And your arm shall be uncovered. And you shall prophesy against it.

⁸ “And behold, I will lay ropes upon you. And you shall not turn from one side to another until you have ended the days of your siege.

⁹ “You shall also take wheat for yourself, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make yourself bread from it. According to the number of the days that you shall sleep on your side —three hundred ninety days —you shall eat it.

¹⁰ “And the food which you shall eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight. From time to time, you shall eat it.

¹¹ “You shall also drink water, the sixth part of a hin by measure. From time to time, you shall drink.

¹² “And you shall eat it like barley cakes. And you shall bake it in the dung that comes out of man, in their sight.”

¹³ And the LORD said: “So shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, wherever I cast them.”

¹⁴ Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, my soul has not been polluted. For from my youth, even until this hour, I have not eaten of a thing dead or torn in pieces, nor came there any unclean flesh in my mouth.”

¹⁵ Then He said to me, “Lo, I have given you bull’s dung instead of man’s dung. And you shall prepare your bread with it.”

¹⁶ Moreover, He said to 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,

¹⁷ “because bread and water shall fail. They shall be appalled with one another and shall waste away because of their iniquity.”