4:1 And you, O mortal, take a brick and set it before you. On it portray a city, Jerusalem;
4:2 and put siege-works against it, and build a siege-wall against it, and cast up a ramp against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering-rams against it all round.
4:3 Then take an iron plate and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; set your face towards it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.
4:4 Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it; you shall bear their punishment for the number of the days that you lie there.
4:5 For I assign to you a number of days, three hundred and ninety days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment; and so you shall bear the punishment of the house of Israel.
4:6 When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah; forty days I assign you, one day for each year.
4:7 You shall set your face towards the siege of Jerusalem, and with your arm bared you shall prophesy against it.
4:8 See, I am putting cords on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.
4:9 And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it.
4:10 The food that you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; at fixed times you shall eat it.
4:11 And you shall drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; at fixed times you shall drink.
4:12 You shall eat it as a barley-cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.
4:13 The Lord said, ‘Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread, unclean, among the nations to which I will drive them.’
4:14 Then I said, ‘Ah Lord God! I have never defiled myself; from my youth up until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by animals, nor has carrion flesh come into my mouth.’
4:15 Then he said to me, ‘See, I will let you have cow’s dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.’
4:16 Then he said to me, Mortal, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay.
4:17 Lacking bread and water, they will look at one another in dismay, and waste away under their punishment.
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