Chapter four.
Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pour tray upon
it the city, even Jerusalem, and lay siege against it, and build a fort against it,
and cast a mount against it, set the camp also against it, and set battering rams
against it round about.
Moreover, take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee
and the city, and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt
lay siege against it.
This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
Lie thou also 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.
For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of
the days, three hundred and ninety days.
So shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou
shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days.
I have appointed thee each day for a year.
Therefore, thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm
shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.
And behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side
to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.
Take thou also unto thee wheat and barley, and beans and lentils, 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.
And thy meat, which thou shalt eat, shall be by way twenty shekels a day.
From time to time shalt thou eat it.
Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hen, from time to
time shalt thou drink.
And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that
cometh out of man in their sight.
And the Lord said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread
among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.
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.
Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung,
and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.
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, that they may want bread and water,
and be astonished one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.