Ezekiel 4
New Living Translation
A Sign of the Coming Siege
4 “And now, son of man, take a large clay brick and set it down in front of you. Then draw a map of the city of Jerusalem on it. 2 Show the city under siege. Build a wall around it so no one can escape. Set up the enemy camp, and surround the city with siege ramps and battering rams. 3 Then take an iron griddle and place it between you and the city. Turn toward the city and demonstrate how harsh the siege will be against Jerusalem. This will be a warning to the people of Israel.
4 “Now lie on your left side and place the sins of Israel on yourself. You are to bear their sins for the number of days you lie there on your side. 5 I am requiring you to bear Israel’s sins for 390 days—one day for each year of their sin. 6 After that, turn over and lie on your right side for 40 days—one day for each year of Judah’s sin.
7 “Meanwhile, keep staring at the siege of Jerusalem. Lie there with your arm bared and prophesy her destruction. 8 I will tie you up with ropes so you won’t be able to turn from side to side until the days of your siege have been completed.
9 “Now go and get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and emmer wheat, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use them to make bread for yourself during the 390 days you will be lying on your side. 10 Ration this out to yourself, eight ounces[a] of food for each day, and eat it at set times. 11 Then measure out a jar[b] of water for each day, and drink it at set times. 12 Prepare and eat this food as you would barley cakes. While all the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread.” 13 Then the Lord said, “This is how Israel will eat defiled bread in the Gentile lands to which I will banish them!”
14 Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, must I be defiled by using human dung? For I have never been defiled before. From the time I was a child until now I have never eaten any animal that died of sickness or was killed by other animals. I have never eaten any meat forbidden by the law.”
15 “All right,” the Lord said. “You may bake your bread with cow dung instead of human dung.” 16 Then he told me, “Son of man, I will make food very scarce in Jerusalem. It will be weighed out with great care and eaten fearfully. The water will be rationed out drop by drop, and the people will drink it with dismay. 17 Lacking food and water, people will look at one another in terror, and they will waste away under their punishment.
Ezekiel 4
Legacy Standard Bible
Ezekiel Bears Israel’s Iniquity
4 “Now as for you, son of man, (A)get yourself a brick, set it before you, and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem. 2 Then (B)set a siege against it, build a siege wall against it, [a]raise up a ramp against it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams against it all around. 3 Now as for you, get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and establish 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 “Now 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 Now I have set a number of days for you corresponding to the years of their iniquity, 390 days; thus (F)you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6 And you shall complete these, and you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have set it for you for forty days, a day for (G)each year. 7 Then you shall establish your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and (H)prophesy against it. 8 Now behold, I will (I)set ropes upon you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.
Making Unclean Bread
9 “Now as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and (J)spelt; set 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 And your food which you eat shall be [b](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 [c]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 Yahweh 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 Yahweh! 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)offensive meat ever entered my mouth.” 15 Then He said to me, “See, I will set for 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 they will drink water by (T)measure and in desolation 17 because bread and water will be lacking; and they will be in desolation with one another and (U)rot away in their iniquity.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 4:2 Lit cast
- Ezekiel 4:10 Approx. 8 oz. or 220 gm, a shekel was approx. 0.4 oz. or 11 gm
- Ezekiel 4:11 A hin was approx. 1 gal. or 3.8 l
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