| Chapter 4 |
1 | Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it a city, even Jerusalem: |
2 | and lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it round about. |
3 | And take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. |
4 | Moreover lie thou upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it; [according to] the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity. |
5 | For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be unto thee a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. |
6 | And again, when thou hast accomplished these, thou shalt lie on thy right side, and shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah: forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it unto thee. |
7 | And thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with thine arm uncovered; and thou shalt prophesy against it. |
8 | And, behold, I lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to the other, till thou hast accomplished the days of thy siege. |
9 | Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, 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, even three hundred and ninety days, shalt thou eat thereof. |
10 | And thy food which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it. |
11 | And thou shalt drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time shalt thou drink. |
12 | And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it in their sight with dung that cometh out of man. |
13 | And Jehovah said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations whither I will drive them. |
14 | Then said I, Ah Lord Jehovah! 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 of beasts; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth. |
15 | Then he said unto me, See, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread thereon. |
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 fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure, and in dismay: |
17 | that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity. |