¹“You also , son of man , take a tile , and lay it before yourself , and portray on it a city , even Jerusalem .

²Lay siege against it , build forts against it , and cast up a mound against it . Also set camps against it and plant battering rams against it all around .

³Take for yourself an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city . Then set your face towards it . It will be besieged , and you shall lay siege against it . This shall be a sign to the house of Israel .

⁴“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 .

⁵For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days , even three hundred and ninety days . So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel .

⁶“Again , when you have accomplished these , you shall lie on your right side , and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah . I have appointed forty days , each day for a year , to you .

⁷You shall set your face towards the siege of Jerusalem , with your arm uncovered ; and you shall prophesy against it .

⁸Behold , I put ropes on you , and you shall not turn yourself from one side to the other , until you have accomplished the days of your siege .

⁹“Take for yourself also wheat , barley , beans , lentils , millet , and spelt , and put them in one vessel . Make bread of it . According to the number of the days that you will lie on your side , even three hundred and ninety days , you shall eat of 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 A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces.]

¹¹You shall drink water by measure , the sixth part of a hin . From time to time you shall drink .[#4:11 A hin is about 6.5 litres or 1.7 gallons.]

¹²You shall eat it as barley cakes , and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.”

¹³The LORD said, “Even thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean , amongst the nations where I will drive them .”

¹⁴Then I said , “Ah Lord GOD ! Behold , my soul has not been polluted ; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself , or is torn of animals. No abominable meat has come into my mouth !”

¹⁵Then he said to me , “Behold , I have given you cow’s dung for man ’s dung , and you shall prepare your bread on it .”

¹⁶Moreover he said to me , “Son of man , behold , I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem . They will eat bread by weight , and with fearfulness. They will drink water by measure , and in dismay;

¹⁷that they may lack bread and water , be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity .