Siege of Jerusalem Illustrated on a Brick

4 “Now,^[a] son of man,^[b] take for yourself a brick, and you must put it before you,^[c] and you must portray on it a city, Jerusalem. ² And you must build against it siege works, and you must build against it a bulwark, and you must heap against it a siege ramp, and you must set up against it camps and put against it a battering ram all around. ³ And take for yourself a plate of iron, and you must place it as a wall of iron between you and the city, and you must set your face against it, and it must be under siege,^[d] and you must lay the siege against it; it is a sign for the house of Israel. ⁴ And you, lie down on your left side, and you must put^[e] the guilt of the house of Israel on it. You will carry their guilt the number of days that you will lie on it. ⁵ And I will give to you the years of their guilt according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days, and you must bear the guilt^[f] of the house of Israel. ⁶ When you have completed these, then you must lie a second time on your right side; and you must bear the guilt^[g] of the house of Judah forty days, a day for each year, a day for each year I give it to you. ⁷ And toward the siege of Jerusalem you must set your face and your bared arm; then you must prophesy against it. ⁸ Now^[h] look! I will put on you cords, and you may not turn yourself from one side to your other side until you complete the days of your siege.

Ezekiel’s Strange Defiled Meal

⁹ “And you, take for yourself^[i] wheat and barley and beans and lentils and millet^[j] and spelt, and you must put them in one vessel, and you must make them for yourself^[k] into a food during the number of days that you are lying on your side; three hundred and ninety days you shall eat it. ¹⁰ And your food that you will eat^[l] will be according to weight; twenty shekels for each day at fixed times^[m] you shall eat it. ¹¹ And an amount of water^[n] you shall drink, a sixth of a hin; at fixed times^[o] you shall drink it. ¹² And as a bread-cake of barley you shall eat it, and with human excrement^[p] you shall bake it before their eyes.” ¹³ And Yahweh said, “Thus shall the Israelites^[q] eat their unclean food among the nations where I will scatter them.”^{[r] 14} And I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Look! I have not been defiling myself, and a dead body and mangled carcass I have not eaten from my childhood until now, and unclean meat^[s] has not come into my mouth!” ¹⁵ And he said to me, “See I will give you cattle manure^[t] in the place of the feces of a human, and you may prepare your food on it.” ¹⁶ And he said to me, “Son of man,^[u] look, I am going to break the supply^[v] of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight, anxiously,^[w] and rationed water,^[x] and they will drink with horror, ¹⁷ so that they will lack food and water, and they will be appalled with one another,^[y] and they will waste away because of their guilt.^[z]