Ezekiel 4:1–5:17

Siege of Jerusalem Predicted

1 “Now you son of man, aget yourself a brick, place it before you and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem.

2 “Then alay siege against it, build a siege wall, 1raise up a ramp, pitch camps and place battering rams against it all around.

3 “Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so that ait is under siege, and besiege it. This is a bsign to the house of Israel.

4 “As for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall abear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it.

5 “For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their iniquity, three hundred and ninety days; thus ayou shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

6 “When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for aeach year.

7 “Then you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and aprophesy against it.

8 “Now behold, I will aput ropes on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

Defiled Bread

9 “But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and aspelt, put them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days.

10 “Your food which you eat shall be atwenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time.

11 “The water you drink shall be the sixth part of a hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time.

12 “You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human adung.”

13 Then the Lord said, “Thus will the sons of Israel eat their bread aunclean among the nations where I will banish them.”

14 But I said, “aAh, Lord 1God! Behold, I have bnever been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what cdied of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any dunclean meat ever entered my mouth.”

15 Then He said to me, “See, I will give you cow’s dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread.”

16 Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to abreak the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by bweight and with anxiety, and drink water by cmeasure and in horror,

17 because bread and water will be scarce; and they will be appalled with one another and awaste away in their iniquity.

Chapter 5

Jerusalem’s Desolation Foretold

1 “As for you, son of man, take a asharp sword; take and 1use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take bscales for weighing and divide 2the hair.

2 “One third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the adays of the siege are completed. Then you shall take one third and strike it with the sword all around 1the city, and one third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will bunsheathe a sword behind them.

3 “Take also a few in number from 1them and bind them in the edges of your robes.

4 “Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will 1spread to all the house of Israel.

5 “Thus says the Lord 1God, ‘This is aJerusalem; I have set her at the bcenter of the nations, with lands around her.

6 ‘But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes amore than the lands which surround her; for they have brejected My ordinances and have not walked 1in My statutes.’

7 “Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Because you have amore turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,’

8 therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I, even I, am aagainst you, and I will bexecute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.

9 ‘And because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have anot done, and the like of which I will never do again.

10 ‘Therefore, afathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and bscatter all your remnant to every wind.

11 ‘So as I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have adefiled My sanctuary with all your bdetestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw, and My eye will have no pity and I will not spare.

12 ‘One third of you will die by aplague or be consumed by famine among you, one third will fall by the sword around you, and one third I will bscatter to every wind, and I will cunsheathe a sword behind them.

13 ‘Thus My anger will be spent and I will 1satisfy My wrath on them, and I will be 2aappeased; then they will know that I, the Lord, have bspoken in My zeal when I have spent My wrath upon them.

14 ‘Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a areproach among the nations which surround you, in the sight of all who pass by.

15 ‘So 1it will be a reproach, a reviling, a awarning and an object of horror to the nations who surround you when I bexecute judgments against you in anger, wrath and raging rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken.

16 ‘When I send against them the 1deadly arrows of famine which 2were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break the staff of bread.

17 ‘Moreover, aI will send on you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you of children; bplague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”