The Siege of Jerusalem

¹You also, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you and inscribe a city on it, even Jerusalem.

²Then lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and build a mound against it; set camps and place battering rams against it all around.[#Eze 21:22]

³Moreover take for yourself an iron plate and set it up for a wall of iron between you and the city. And set your face against it so that it is besieged, and lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.[#Isa 8:18; 20:3]

⁴As for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.[#Lev 10:17; 16:22]

⁵For I have laid upon you the years of their iniquity according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

⁶When you have accomplished them, lie again on your right side, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have appointed you each day for a year.[#Nu 14:34; Da 9:24–26; 12:11–12]

⁷Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and your arm shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against it.[#Isa 52:10]

⁸Behold, I will lay bands upon you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to another until you have ended the days of your siege.[#Eze 3:25]

⁹Also take for yourself wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel and make bread. According to the number of the days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it.

¹⁰Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time you shall eat it.[#4:10 About 8 ounces, or 230 grams.]

¹¹You also shall drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin. From time to time you shall drink it.[#4:11 About 2/3 quart, or 0.6 liter.]

¹²You shall eat it as barley cake, having baked it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.

¹³Then the Lord said, “Even so the Israelites shall eat their defiled bread among the nations where I drive them.”[#Da 1:8]

¹⁴Then I said, “Ah, Lord God ! Behold, my soul has not been defiled, for from my youth up, even until now, I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn in pieces, nor has abominable meat come into my mouth.”[#Eze 9:8; 20:49]

¹⁵Then He said to me, “I have given you cow dung instead of man’s dung over which you shall prepare your bread.”

¹⁶Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety and drink water by measure and with horror,[#Lev 26:26; Eze 5:16]

¹⁷because bread and water will be scarce, and they will be appalled with one another, and waste away for their iniquity.[#Lev 26:39; Eze 24:23]