Ezekiel 4
Modern English Version
The Siege of Jerusalem Portrayed
4 You also, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you and inscribe a city on it, even Jerusalem. 2 Then lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and build a mound against it; set camps and place battering rams against it all around. 3 Moreover take for yourself an iron plate and set it up for a wall of iron between you and the city. And set your face against it so that it is besieged, and lay siege against it. This shall be a 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 upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. 5 For I have laid upon you the years of their iniquity according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
6 When you have accomplished them, lie again on your right side, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have appointed you each day for a year. 7 Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and your arm shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against it. 8 I will lay bands upon you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to another until you have ended the days of your siege.
9 Also take for yourself wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel and make bread. According to the number of the days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it. 10 Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels[a] a day. From time to time you shall eat it. 11 You also shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin.[b] From time to time you shall drink it. 12 You shall eat it as barley cake, having baked it in their sight with dung that comes out of man. 13 Then the Lord said, “Even so the sons of Israel shall eat their defiled bread among the nations where I drive them.”
14 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! My soul has not been defiled. For from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn in pieces, nor has abominable meat come into my mouth.”
15 Then He said to me, “I have given you cow dung instead of man’s dung over which you shall prepare your bread.”
16 Moreover He said to me, Son of man, I will cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety and drink water by measure and with horror, 17 because bread and water will be scarce, and they will be appalled with one another, and waste away for their iniquity.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 4:10 About 8 ounces, or 230 grams.
- Ezekiel 4:11 About ⅔ quart, or 0.6 liter.
Ezekiel 4
New Catholic Bible
Before the Siege of Jerusalem
Chapter 4
Symbols of Siege and Exile. 1 As for you, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it in front of you. Draw on it a city, Jerusalem.[a] 2 Portray it under siege, erect towers against it, pitch camps, and set up battering rams all around it. 3 Then take an iron griddle and place it as though it were an iron wall between you and the city. Keep your gaze fixed upon the city; it will be in a state of siege, and you will be the besieger. This will be a sign for the house of Israel.[b]
4 [c]Then lie on your left side while I place the guilt of the house of Israel upon you. You will bear their guilt for the number of days that you lie on your side. 5 Allowing one day for every year of their guilt, I ordain that you bear Israel’s punishment for three hundred and ninety days.
6 When you have completed these days, you shall lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah for forty days: one day for each year I have allotted you. 7 Then fix your gaze on the siege of Jerusalem, and with bared arm you shall prophesy against it. 8 I will tie you with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.
9 [d]Then take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet, and spelt. Put them all into the same pot and make bread for yourself. You are to eat it for as many days as you lie upon your side—three hundred and ninety days. 10 The food that you shall eat shall weigh twenty shekels a day, and you are to eat it at fixed times. 11 You are also to measure out and drink the same amount of water each day at fixed times—one-sixth of a hin. 12 The food that you eat shall be in the form of a barley cake. Bake it in the sight of the people with human dung as fuel.
13 The Lord then said: Thus will the Israelites be forced to eat defiled food among the nations to which I will banish them. 14 “Lord God,” I protested, “from my youth until this very day I have never defiled myself. I have never eaten an animal that died a natural death or was torn to pieces by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.” 15 He replied: Very well. I will permit you to use cow dung instead of human dung to prepare your bread.[e]
16 Then he said to me: Son of man, I intend to reduce greatly the supply of food in Jerusalem. The people will ration anxiously the bread they eat and sip carefully the measure of water they are allotted each day. 17 Because of the scarcity of bread and water, they will be overwhelmed with fear and waste away because of their iniquity.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 4:1 For writing and drawing, the Babylonians used thin tablets of clay that had not yet dried, on which they wrote with a suitable stylus.
- Ezekiel 4:3 Verse 3 should be followed directly by verse 7.
- Ezekiel 4:4 The length of the atonement, which is given in round figures, is taken from the length of the period of exile for Israel and Judah respectively (721–538 B.C. and 587–538 B.C.).
- Ezekiel 4:9 A day will come when Jerusalem, a city being starved out, will have to ration food: about 250 grams of dry bread and a liter of water.
- Ezekiel 4:15 Dried manure is still used as fuel in some parts of the East.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.
