Ezekiel 4
Complete Jewish Bible
4 “As for you, human being, take a clay slab, lay it down in front of you, and draw on it the city of Yerushalayim. 2 Show it under siege — build towers against it, raise earthworks against it, set up camps against it, and surround it with battering rams. 3 Then take an iron griddle and put it in place as a wall of iron between yourself and the city, and fix your gaze on it — the city is under siege, and you are the one besieging it. This will be a sign for the house of Isra’el.
4 “Next, you are to lie on your left side, and have it bear the guilt of the house of Isra’el — for as many days as you lie on your side, you will bear their guilt. 5 For I am assigning you one day for each year of their guilt; thus you are to bear the guilt of the house of Isra’el for 390 days. 6 Then, when you have finished that, you are to lie on your right side and bear the guilt of the house of Y’hudah for forty days, each day corresponding to a year; this is what I am assigning you. 7 You are to fix your gaze on the siege of Yerushalayim, and, with your arm bared, prophesy against it. 8 I am tying you down with ropes, and you are not to turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.
9 “Take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and buckwheat; put them together in one bowl; and make bread from it. For as long as you lie on your side, 390 days, this is what you are to eat. 10 Each day the food you eat must weigh only three-quarters of a pound; you may eat it from time to time [during the day]. 11 You are also to drink a limited amount of water, two-thirds of a quart; you may drink it from time to time [during the day]. 12 [The bread] you eat is to be baked like barley cakes; you are to bake it before their eyes, using human dung as fuel.” 13 Adonai said, “This is how the people of Isra’el will eat their food — unclean — in the nations where I am driving them.” 14 I objected: “No, Adonai Elohim! I have never defiled myself — from my youth until now I have never eaten anything that died by itself or was killed by wild animals; no such disgusting food has ever entered my mouth.” 15 He answered, “All right, I will give you cow dung to use instead of human dung, and you can prepare your bread on it.”
16 He then said to me, “Human being, I am going to cut off the supply of bread in Yerushalayim, so that they will anxiously weigh out bread to eat, and, horrified, ration water to drink. 17 Finally, due to lack of bread and water, they will stare at each other in shock, wasting away because of their guilt.”
Yechezkel 4
Orthodox Jewish Bible
4 Thou also, Ben Adam, take thee a levenah (tile, brick), and lay it before thee, and engrave upon it the Ir, even Yerushalayim;
2 And lay matzor (siege) against it, and erect against it siege works, and build a ramp against it; set the machanot also against it, and set battering rams against it all around.
3 Moreover take thou unto thee a machavat barzel (iron griddle), and set it for a kir barzel (wall of iron) between thee and the Ir; and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be an ot (sign) to Bais Yisroel.
4 Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the avon Bais Yisroel upon it; according to the mispar of the yamim that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their avon.
5 For I have laid upon thee the shanim of their avon (iniquity), according to the mispar (number) of the yamim, three hundred and ninety days; so shalt thou bear the avon Bais Yisroel.
6 And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the avon Bais Yehudah forty days; I have appointed thee a day for each year.
7 Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the Matzor Yerushalayim (Siege of Jerusalem), and thine zero’a shall be bared, and thou shalt prophesy against it.
8 And, hinei, I will tie ropes upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy matzor (siege).
9 Take thou also unto thee chittin (wheat), and se’orim (barley), and fol (beans), and adosim (lentils), and dochan (millet), and kussemim (spelt), and put them in keli echad, and make thee lechem thereof, according to the mispar of the yamim that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.
10 And thy okhel (food) which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time shalt thou eat it.
11 Thou shalt drink also mayim by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.
12 And thou shalt eat it as cakes of se’orim, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of ha’adam, in their sight.
13 And Hashem said, Even thus shall the Bnei Yisroel eat their lechem tameh among the Goyim, whither I will drive them.
14 Then said I, Not so Adonoi Hashem! Hinei, my nefesh hath not been made tuma’ah for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten nevelah or trefah; neither came there basar piggul into my mouth.
15 Then He said unto me, Behold, I have given thee cattle dung instead of dung of adam, and thou shalt prepare thy lechem therewith.
16 Moreover He said unto me, Ben Adam, hinei, I will break the mateh lechem (staff of bread, food supply) in Yerushalayim: and they shall eat lechem weighted out in rations, and with worry; and they shall drink mayim by measure, and with amazed alarm:
17 In order that lechem and mayim be scarce, and that every ish and achiv be confounded with shock and rot away because of their avon.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
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