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]

5 “And you, son of man,^[aa] take for yourself^[ab] a sword, sharp as a barber’s razor.^[ac] Take it for yourself, and you must cause it to pass over your head and over your beard, and you must take for yourself a set of scales for weighing, and you must divide them.^{[ad] 2} A third you must burn with fire in the midst^[ae] of the city at the completion^[af] of the days of the siege, and you must take a third, and you must strike it with the sword around it, and a third you must scatter to the wind, and I will draw a sword behind them. ³ And you must take from these a few in number, and you must tuck them in your hem. ⁴ And from them again you shall take some, and you must throw them in the middle of the fire, and you must burn them with fire; from it a fire will go out to all of the house of Israel. ⁵ Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This is Jerusalem in the midst of the nations where I have put her, and countries are around her. ⁶ But she has rebelled against my regulations to the point of wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they rejected my regulations, and as for my statutes, they did not walk in them. ⁷ Therefore, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because of your commotion more than the nations that are around you—you did not walk in my statutes, and you did not do my regulations, and according to the regulations of the nations that are around you, you did not do. ⁸ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Look! I, even I,^[ag] am against you, and I will execute judgment in the midst of you before the eyes of the nations, ⁹ and I will do with you that which I have not done, and which I will not do again, because of all of your detestable things. ¹⁰ Therefore^[ah] parents^[ai] will eat children^[aj] in the midst of you, and children^[ak] will eat their parents,^[al] and I will execute judgment in you, and I will scatter your entire remnant to every wind. ¹¹ Therefore as surely as I live,^[am] declares^[an] the Lord Yahweh, Surely^[ao] because you have defiled my sanctuary with all of your vile idols and with all of your detestable things, now indeed I^[ap] will reduce, and my eye will not take pity, and surely I will show no compassion. ¹² A third of you will die because of the plague, and because of the famine they will perish in the midst of you, and a third will fall through the sword around you, and a third I will scatter to every direction of the wind, and I will draw the sword behind them. ¹³ And my anger will come to an end, and I will place my rage on them, and I will relent, and they will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my passion when I fully vent my rage against them.^{[aq] 14} And I will make you into a desolate place and into a disgrace among the nations that surround you before the eyes of every one who passes by.^{[ar] 15} And it will be^[as] an object of taunting^[at] and an object of mockery, a warning and a horror to the nations that are around you whenever I execute judgments against you in anger and in wrath and in furious punishments! I, Yahweh, have spoken! ¹⁶ When I send my arrows of deadly famine against them, which will be as destruction that I will send in order to destroy you, I will increase famine against you, and I will break the supply of food^[au] for you. ¹⁷ And I will send against you famine and fierce animals,^[av] and they will make you childless; and plague and blood will pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I, Yahweh, I have spoken!”

Idolatrous Worship and Idolatrous Objects Denounced

6 And the word of Yahweh came^[aw] to me, saying, ² “Son of man,^[ax] set your face to the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them, ³ and you must say, ‘Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh, thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys: “Look, I am bringing upon you the sword, and I will destroy your high places, ⁴ and your altars will be desolate, and your incense altars will be broken, and I will throw down your slain ones before^[ay] your idols, ⁵ and I will place^[az] the corpses of the children of Israel before^[ba] their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶ In all of your dwellings, the cities will be desolate and the high places will be ruined, so that your altars will be desolate and will suffer punishment. Your idols will be broken and will come to an end, and your incense altars will be cut down, and your works will be destroyed, ⁷ and the slain one will fall in the midst of you, and then you will know that I am Yahweh. ⁸ But^[bb] I will spare some, so there will be^[bc] for you fugitives from the sword among the nations when you are scattered^[bd] in the countries. ⁹ And your fugitives will remember me among the nations to which they were taken captive, that I was shattered by their adulterous heart^[be] which departed from me, and by their adulterous eyes^[bf] which went after their idols, and they will feel loathing for themselves,^[bg] for the evil that they did, for all of their detestable things. ¹⁰ And they will know that I am Yahweh; not in vain^[bh] I spoke to bring to them this evil.”’ ¹¹ Thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Clap your hand and stamp with your foot, and say, “Alas, for all of the detestable things of the evil of the house of Israel, because of which^[bi] they will fall with the sword, with the famine, and with the plague. ¹² The one who is far away will die by the plague, and the one who is near will fall by the sword, and the one who is being left behind and being spared will die by the famine, and I will complete my rage on^[bj] them. ¹³ And you will know that I am Yahweh when their slain ones are in the midst of their idols^[bk] around their altars at every high hill, on the tops of all the mountains and under every green tree and under every leafy oak—the place at which they gave a pleasing scent for all of their idols. ¹⁴ And I will stretch out my hand against them, and I will make the land a desolation and a wasteland from the desert to Riblah in all of their dwellings, and they will know that I am Yahweh.”’”