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]
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 4:1 Or “And”
- Ezekiel 4:1 Or “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
- Ezekiel 4:1 Literally “to the face of you”
- Ezekiel 4:3 Literally “in the siege”
- Ezekiel 4:4 Or “you will put”
- Ezekiel 4:5 Or “punishment”
- Ezekiel 4:6 Or “punishment”
- Ezekiel 4:8 Or “and”
- Ezekiel 4:9 Hebrew “you”
- Ezekiel 4:9 Or “sorghum”
- Ezekiel 4:9 Hebrew “you”
- Ezekiel 4:10 Hebrew “will eat it”
- Ezekiel 4:10 Literally “from time to time”
- Ezekiel 4:11 Literally “water by amount”
- Ezekiel 4:11 Literally “from time to time”
- Ezekiel 4:12 Literally “with human dung of the excrement of the human”
- Ezekiel 4:13 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Ezekiel 4:13 Literally “which I will scatter them there”
- Ezekiel 4:14 Literally “flesh of unclean meat”
- Ezekiel 4:15 Literally “the manure of cattle”
- Ezekiel 4:16 Or “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
- Ezekiel 4:16 Literally “staff”
- Ezekiel 4:16 Literally “and with worry”
- Ezekiel 4:16 Literally “and water by amount”
- Ezekiel 4:17 Literally “a man and his brother”
- Ezekiel 4:17 Or “punishment”