By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat.(A)

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And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

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And on the ninth day of the fourth(A) month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the city wall(B) was broken through.(C)

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And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.

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Judgment on Jerusalem and Judah

See now, the Lord,
    the Lord Almighty,
is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah
    both supply and support:(A)
all supplies of food(B) and all supplies of water,(C)

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For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water.

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“My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have thrown him into a cistern,(A) where he will starve to death when there is no longer any bread(B) in the city.”

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My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is: for there is no more bread in the city.

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By the ninth day of the fourth[a] month the famine(A) in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 25:3 Probable reading of the original Hebrew text (see Jer. 52:6); Masoretic Text does not have fourth.

And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

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19 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “The fasts of the fourth,(A) fifth,(B) seventh(C) and tenth(D) months will become joyful(E) and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth(F) and peace.”

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19 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace.

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21 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments(A)—sword(B) and famine(C) and wild beasts and plague(D)—to kill its men and their animals!(E)

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21 For thus saith the Lord God; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?

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15 Outside is the sword;
    inside are plague and famine.
Those in the country
    will die by the sword;
those in the city
    will be devoured by famine and plague.(A)

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15 The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.

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10 Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents.(A) I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds.(B) 11 Therefore as surely as I live,(C) declares the Sovereign(D) Lord, because you have defiled my sanctuary(E) with all your vile images(F) and detestable practices,(G) I myself will shave you; I will not look on you with pity or spare you.(H) 12 A third of your people will die of the plague or perish by famine inside you; a third will fall by the sword outside your walls; and a third I will scatter to the winds(I) and pursue with drawn sword.(J)

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10 Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.

11 Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.

12 A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.

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“Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt;(A) put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side. 10 Weigh out twenty shekels[a](B) of food to eat each day and eat it at set times. 11 Also measure out a sixth of a hin[b] of water and drink it at set times.(C) 12 Eat the food as you would a loaf of barley bread; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement(D) for fuel.” 13 The Lord said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.”(E)

14 Then I said, “Not so, Sovereign Lord!(F) I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead(G) or torn by wild animals. No impure meat has ever entered my mouth.(H)

15 “Very well,” he said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow dung instead of human excrement.”

16 He then said to me: “Son of man, I am about to cut off(I) the food supply in Jerusalem. The people will eat rationed food in anxiety and drink rationed water in despair,(J) 17 for food and water will be scarce.(K) They will be appalled at the sight of each other and will waste away because of[c] their sin.(L)

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 4:10 That is, about 8 ounces or about 230 grams
  2. Ezekiel 4:11 That is, about 2/3 quart or about 0.6 liter
  3. Ezekiel 4:17 Or away in

Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.

10 And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.

11 Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.

12 And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.

13 And the Lord said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.

14 Then said I, Ah Lord God! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.

15 Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.

16 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:

17 That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.

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10 Our skin is hot as an oven,
    feverish from hunger.(A)

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10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

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Because of thirst(A) the infant’s tongue
    sticks to the roof of its mouth;(B)
the children beg for bread,
    but no one gives it to them.(C)

Those who once ate delicacies
    are destitute in the streets.
Those brought up in royal purple(D)
    now lie on ash heaps.(E)

The punishment of my people
    is greater than that of Sodom,(F)
which was overthrown in a moment
    without a hand turned to help her.

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The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.

They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.

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10 I will banish from them the sounds(A) of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom,(B) the sound of millstones(C) and the light of the lamp.(D)

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10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.

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