Siege of Jerusalem Predicted

4 “Now you, son of man, ^(A)get yourself a brick, place it before you, and inscribe a city on it—Jerusalem. ² Then ^(B)lay siege against it, build a siege wall, pile up an assault ramp, set up camps, and place battering rams against it all around. ³ Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city, and direct your face toward it so that ^(C)it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a ^(D)sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ “Then you are to lie down on your left side and put the wrongdoing of the house of Israel on it; you shall ^(E)bear their wrongdoing for the number of days that you lie on it. ⁵ For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their wrongdoing, 390 days; so ^(F)you shall bear the wrongdoing of the house of Israel. ⁶ When you have completed these days, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the wrongdoing of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for ^(G)each year. ⁷ Then you shall direct your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and ^(H)prophesy against it. ⁸ Now behold, I will ^(I)put ropes ^[a]around you so that you cannot turn from your one side to your other until you have completed the days of your siege.

Defiled Bread

⁹ “But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and ^(J)spelt, and 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, 390 days. ¹⁰ Your food which you eat shall be ^(K)twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time. ¹¹ The water you drink shall be a ^[b]sixth 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 ^(L)dung.” ¹³ Then the Lord said, “In this way the sons of Israel will eat their bread ^(M)unclean among the nations where I will scatter them.” ¹⁴ But I said, “^(N)Oh, Lord ^[c]God! Behold, ^[d]I have ^(O)never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what ^(P)died of itself or was torn by animals, nor has any ^(Q)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, so that you may prepare your bread over it.” ¹⁶ Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to ^(R)break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by ^(S)weight and with anxiety, and drink water by ^(T)measure and in horror, ¹⁷ because bread and water will be scarce; and they will tremble with one another and ^(U)waste away in their guilt.

The Broken Jar

19 This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a ^(A)potter’s earthenware ^(B)jar, and take some of the ^(C)elders of the people and some of the ^[a](D)senior priests. ² Then go out to the ^(E)Valley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the ^[b]Potsherd Gate, and ^(F)proclaim there the words that I tell you, ³ and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you ^(G)kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold I am going to bring a ^(H)disaster upon this place, at which the ^(I)ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle. ⁴ Since they have ^(J)abandoned Me and have ^(K)made this place foreign, and have burned ^[c]sacrifices in it to ^(L)other gods that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and since they have filled this place with the ^(M)blood of the innocent ⁵ and have built the ^(N)high places of Baal to burn their ^(O)sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I did not command nor speak of, nor did it ever enter My ^[d]mind; ⁶ therefore, behold, ^(P)days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when this place will no longer be called ^(Q)Topheth or ^(R)the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the Valley of Slaughter. ⁷ And I will ^(S)frustrate the planning of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and ^(T)I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will make their ^(U)carcasses food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth. ⁸ I will also turn this city into an object of ^(V)horror and ^[e]hissing; ^(W)everyone who passes by it will be appalled and ^[f]hiss because of all its ^[g]disasters. ⁹ And I will make them ^(X)eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh during the siege and in the hardship with which their enemies and those who seek their life will torment them.”’

¹⁰ “Then you are to break the ^(Y)jar in the sight of the men who accompany you, ¹¹ and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord of armies says: “To the same extent I will ^(Z)break this people and this city, just as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will ^(AA)bury their dead in Topheth, ^[h]because there is no other place for burial. ¹² This is how I will treat this place and its inhabitants,” declares the Lord, “so as to make this city like Topheth. ¹³ The ^(AB)houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be ^(AC)defiled like the place Topheth, because of all the ^(AD)houses on whose rooftops they burned ^[i]sacrifices to ^(AE)all the heavenly ^[j]lights and ^(AF)poured out drink offerings to other gods.”’”

¹⁴ Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the ^(AG)courtyard of the Lord’s house and said to all the people, ¹⁵ “This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: ‘Behold, I am going to bring on this city and all its towns the entire disaster that I have declared against it, because they have ^(AH)stiffened their necks so ^(AI)as not to listen to My words.’”

² When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “^(A)Go, take for yourself a wife ^[a]inclined to infidelity, and children of infidelity; for ^(B)the land commits flagrant infidelity, ^[b]abandoning the Lord.” ³ So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and ^(C)bore him a son. ⁴ And the Lord said to him, “Name him ^(D)Jezreel; for in just a little while ^(E)I will ^[c]punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel, and ^(F)I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. ⁵ On that day I will ^(G)break the bow of Israel in the ^(H)Valley of Jezreel.”

⁶ Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. And ^[d]the Lord said to him, “Name her ^[e]Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer ^(I)take pity on the house of Israel, that I would ever forgive them. ⁷ But I will take ^(J)pity on the house of Judah and ^(K)save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by ^(L)bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.”

⁸ When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and gave birth to a son. ⁹ And ^[f]the Lord said, “Name him ^[g]Lo-ammi, because you are not My people, and I am not ^[h]your God.”

Prophecy about Egypt and Ethiopia

20 In the year that the ^[a](A)commander came to ^(B)Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him and he fought against Ashdod and captured it, ² at that time the Lord spoke through ^(C)Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loosen the ^(D)sackcloth from your hips and take your ^(E)sandals off your feet.” And he did so, going ^(F)naked and barefoot. ³ Then the Lord said, “Even as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years as a ^(G)sign and symbol against Egypt and ^[b](H)Cush, ⁴ so the ^(I)king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, ^(J)young and old, naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered, to the ^[c]shame of Egypt.