Ezekiel 4

1“Now, son of man, take a clay brick, set it in front of you, and draw on it a city, Jerusalem. 2Lay siege to it: build a siege wall against it, heap up a ramp against it, set up army camps around it, and place battering rams against it on every side. 3Then take an iron griddle and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Turn to face it. It will be under siege, and you will besiege it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.

4Then lie on your left side and lay the guilt of the house of Israel on it. For the number of days that you lie on that side, you will bear their guilt. 5I have assigned you a number of days equal to the years of their guilt, 390 days. So you will bear the guilt of the house of Israel. 6When you have completed these days, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the guilt of the house of Judah for forty days. I have assigned you one day for each year. 7Turn to face the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against the city. 8I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege. 9Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt. Put them in one container and make bread for yourself from them. You are to eat it during the 390 days that you lie on your side. 10The food you eat is to be weighed out, about 8 ounces a day, and you are to eat it at set times. 11You are also to drink water by measure, about 2/3 quart, and drink it at set times. 12Eat it as you would a barley cake, baking it in their sight over dried human dung.”

13The LORD then said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their food, unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.” 14Then I said, “Oh, Lord GOD! I have never made myself unclean. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything that died by itself or was torn by wild animals, and no spoiled sacrificial meat has ever entered my mouth.”

15He said to me, “Very well, I will let you use cow dung instead of human dung. You may bake your bread over that.”

16He also said to me, “Son of man, I am about to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread weighed out with anxiety and drink water measured out in despair, 17so that they will run short of bread and water. They will look at one another in horror and waste away under their guilt.”