The Siege of Jerusalem Symbolized

4 “And you, ^(A)son of man, ^(B)take a brick and lay it before you, and engrave on it a city, even Jerusalem. ^2 (C)And put siegeworks against it, ^(D)and build a siege wall against it, ^(E)and cast up a mound against it. Set camps also against it, ^(F)and plant battering rams against it all around. ³ And you, take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; ^(G)and set your face toward it, ^(H)and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is ^(I)a sign for the house of Israel.

⁴ “Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment^[a] of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, ^(J)you shall bear their punishment. ⁵ For I assign to you a number of days, ^(K)390 days, ^(L)equal to the number of the years of their punishment. ^(M)So long shall you bear ^(N)the punishment of the house of Israel. ⁶ And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and ^(O)bear ^(P)the punishment of the house of Judah. ^(Q)Forty days I assign you, a day for each year. ^7 (R)And you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, ^(S)with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against the city. ⁸ And behold, ^(T)I will place cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, till you have completed ^(U)the days of your siege.

⁹ “And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer,^[b] and put them into a single vessel and make your ^(V)bread from them. ^(W)During the number of days that you lie on your side, ^(X)390 days, you shall eat it. ¹⁰ And your food that you eat shall be ^(Y)by weight, ^(Z)twenty shekels^[c] a day; from day to day^[d] you shall eat it. ¹¹ And water you shall drink ^(AA)by measure, the sixth part of a hin;^[e] from day to day you shall drink. ¹² And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it ^(AB)in their sight on human dung.” ¹³ And the Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat ^(AC)their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.” ¹⁴ Then I said, ^(AD)“Ah, Lord God! Behold, I have never defiled myself.^{[f] (AE)}From my youth up till now I have never eaten ^(AF)what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has ^(AG)tainted meat come into my mouth.” ¹⁵ Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.” ¹⁶ Moreover, he said to me, ^(AH)“Son of man, behold, ^(AI)I will break the supply^[g] of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread ^(AJ)by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water ^(AK)by measure and in dismay. ¹⁷ I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and ^(AL)look at one another in dismay, and ^(AM)rot away because of their punishment.

The Broken Flask

19 Thus says the Lord, “Go, buy ^(A)a potter's earthenware ^(B)flask, and take some of ^(C)the elders of the people and some of ^(D)the elders of the priests, ² and go out ^(E)to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. ³ You shall say, ^(F)‘Hear the word of the Lord, ^(G)O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that ^(H)the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. ^4 (I)Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; ^(J)and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, ^5 (K)and have built the high places of Baal ^(L)to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, ^(M)which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind— ⁶ therefore, ^(N)behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or ^(O)the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. ⁷ And in this place ^(P)I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, ^(Q)and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. ^(R)I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. ⁸ And I will make this city ^(S)a horror, ^(T)a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. ^9 (U)And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor ^(V)in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.’

¹⁰ “Then ^(W)you shall break ^(X)the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, ¹¹ and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, ^(Y)as one breaks a potter's vessel, ^(Z)so that it can never be mended. ^(AA)Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. ¹² Thus will I do to this place, declares the Lord, and to its inhabitants, making this city ^(AB)like Topheth. ¹³ The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah—^(AC)all the houses on whose ^(AD)roofs offerings have been offered ^(AE)to all the host of heaven, and ^(AF)drink offerings have been poured out to other gods—shall be defiled ^(AG)like the place of Topheth.’”

¹⁴ Then Jeremiah came from ^(AH)Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, ^(AI)and he stood in the court of the Lord's house and said to all the people: ¹⁵ “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, ^(AJ)because they have stiffened their neck, ^(AK)refusing to hear my words.”

Hosea's Wife and Children

² When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, ^(A)“Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have ^(B)children of whoredom, for ^(C)the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” ³ So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

⁴ And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while ^(D)I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and ^(E)I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. ⁵ And on that day ^(F)I will break the bow of Israel ^(G)in the Valley of Jezreel.”

⁶ She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, ^(H)“Call her name No Mercy,^[a] for ^(I)I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. ⁷ But ^(J)I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I ^(K)will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”

⁸ When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. ⁹ And the Lord said, ^(L)“Call his name Not My People,^[b] for ^(M)you are not my people, and I am not your God.”^[c]

^10 [d] Yet ^(N)the number of the children of Israel shall be ^(O)like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. ^(P)And ^(Q)in the place where it was said to them, ^(R)“You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, ^(S)“Children^[e] of ^(T)the living God.” ¹¹ And ^(U)the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and ^(V)they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

A Sign Against Egypt and Cush

20 In the year that ^(A)the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to ^(B)Ashdod and fought against it and captured it— ² at that time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking ^(C)naked and barefoot.

³ Then the Lord said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years ^(D)as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,^{[a] 4} so shall the ^(E)king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt.