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, ^[a]raise up a ramp, pitch 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 you and the city, and set your face toward it so that ^(C)it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a ^(D)sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ “As for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall ^(E)bear their iniquity 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 iniquity, three hundred and ninety days; thus ^(F)you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁶ When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for ^(G)each year. ⁷ Then you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and ^(H)prophesy against it. ⁸ Now behold, I will ^(I)put ropes on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the 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, 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, three hundred and ninety 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 the sixth part 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, “Thus will the sons of Israel eat their bread ^(M)unclean among the nations where I will banish them.” ¹⁴ But I said, “^(N)Ah, Lord ^[b]God! Behold, 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 beasts, 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 over which you will prepare your bread.” 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 be appalled with one another and ^(U)waste away in their iniquity.

Jerusalem’s Desolation Foretold

5 “As for you, son of man, take a ^(A)sharp sword; take and ^[a]use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take ^(B)scales for weighing and divide ^[b]the hair. ² One third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the ^(C)days of the siege are completed. Then you shall take one third and strike it with the sword all around ^[c]the city, and one third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will ^(D)unsheathe a sword behind them. ³ Take also a few in number from ^[d]them and bind them in the edges of your robes. ⁴ Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will ^[e]spread to all the house of Israel.

⁵ “Thus says the Lord ^[f]God, ‘This is ^(E)Jerusalem; I have set her at the ^(F)center of the nations, with lands around her. ⁶ But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes ^(G)more than the lands which surround her; for they have ^(H)rejected My ordinances and have not walked ^[g]in My statutes.’ ⁷ Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Because you have ^(I)more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,’ ⁸ therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I, even I, am ^(J)against you, and I will ^(K)execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ And because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have ^(L)not done, and the like of which I will never do again. ¹⁰ Therefore, ^(M)fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and ^(N)scatter all your remnant to every wind. ¹¹ So as I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have ^(O)defiled My sanctuary with all your ^(P)detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw, and My eye will have no pity and I will not spare. ¹² One third of you will die by ^(Q)plague or be consumed by famine among you, one third will fall by the sword around you, and one third I will ^(R)scatter to every wind, and I will ^(S)unsheathe a sword behind them.

¹³ ‘Thus My anger will be spent and I will ^[h]satisfy My wrath on them, and I will be ^[i](T)appeased; then they will know that I, the Lord, have ^(U)spoken in My zeal when I have spent My wrath upon them. ¹⁴ Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a ^(V)reproach among the nations which surround you, in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ So ^[j]it will be a reproach, a reviling, a ^(W)warning and an object of horror to the nations who surround you when I ^(X)execute judgments against you in anger, wrath and raging rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken. ¹⁶ When I send against them the ^[k]deadly arrows of famine which ^[l]were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break the staff of bread. ¹⁷ Moreover, ^(Y)I will send on you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you of children; ^(Z)plague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’”