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.