1 “ Now, son of man, get a hard clay block. Set it down in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it.

You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem:

2 T hen build a battle-wall around it to shut it in, and build a hill of dirt against the wall. Cut down trees and lay them on wheels all around the city, to use for breaking down the walls.

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 all around.

3 T hen get an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and turn your face toward it. It will be shut in, and you will fight a battle against it. This will be something special for the people of Israel to see.

Take for yourself an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city: and set your face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

4 “ Then lie on your left side, and I will lay the sin of the people of Israel upon you. You will be under the weight of their sin for the number of days that you lie on your side.

Moreover lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; according to the number of the days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.

5 I have set a number of days for you which is the same as the number of years of their sin, 390 days. This is how long you must be under the weight of the sin of the people of Israel.

For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred ninety days: so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

6 W hen you have completed these, you must lie down a second time, but on your right side. And you must be under the weight of the sin of the people of Judah. I have set a time of forty days for you to do this, one day for each year.

Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah: forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it to you.

7 T hen you must turn your face toward the battle against Jerusalem with no covering on your arm, and tell what will happen against the city.

You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it.

8 I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, until you have completed the days of your battle.

Behold, I lay bands on you, and you shall not turn you from one side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your siege.

9 “ Take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt and put them in one pot, and make them into bread for yourself. Eat it during the 390 days that you lie on your side.

Take for yourself also wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it; according to the number of the days that you shall lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it.

10 T he food you eat each day will weigh as much as twenty pieces of silver, and will have to last until the next day.

Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time you shall eat it.

11 A nd the water you drink each day will be enough to fill a bottle. You will drink it from time to time.

You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time you shall drink.

12 E at your food as you would barley cakes, making it ready in front of their eyes over a fire burning human waste.”

You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.

13 T he Lord said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat unclean food among the nations where I will drive them.”

Yahweh said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.

14 B ut I said, “O Lord God! See, I have never been unclean. Since I was young until now, I have never eaten what died of itself or what was torn by wild animals. No unclean meat has ever come into my mouth.”

Then I said, Ah Lord Yahweh! behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.

15 S o He said to me, “Then I will let you make your bread over cow’s waste instead of human waste.”

Then he said to me, Behold, I have given you cow’s dung for man’s dung, and you shall prepare your bread on it.

16 A nd He said to me, “Son of man, I am going to take away the bread that is needed in Jerusalem. They will weigh the bread they eat and they will drink water from small cups, and be afraid

Moreover he said to 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 b ecause there will not be enough bread and water. They will look at one another in fear, and waste away in their sin.

that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.