Chapter 4

¹ And thou, son of man, take thee a brick, and thou shalt set it before thy face, and shalt portray on it the city, even Jerusalem. ² And thou shalt besiege it, and build works against it, and throw up a mound round about it, and pitch camps against it, and set up engines round about. ³ And take thou to thyself an iron pan, and thou shalt set it for an iron wall between thee and the city: and thou shalt set thy face against it, and it shall be in a siege, and thou shalt besiege it. This is a sign to the children of Israel.

⁴ And thou shalt lie upon thy left side, and lay the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, according to the number of the hundred and fifty days during which thou shalt lie upon it: and thou shalt bear their iniquities. ⁵ For I have appointed thee their iniquities for a number of days, for a hundred and ninety days: so thou shalt bear the iniquities of the house of Israel. ⁶ And thou shalt accomplish ¹this, and then shalt lie on thy right side, and shalt bear the iniquities of the house of Juda forty days: I have appointed thee a day for a year.

⁷ So thou shalt set thy face to the siege of Jerusalem, and shalt strengthen thine arm, and shalt prophesy against it. ⁸ And, behold, I have prepared bonds for thee, land thou mayest not turn from thy one side to the other, until the days of thy siege shall be accomplished.

⁹ Take thou also to thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and ²bread-corn; and thou shalt cast them into one earthen vessel, and shalt make them into loaves for thyself; and thou shalt eat them a hundred and ninety days, according to the number of the days during which thou sleepest on thy side. ¹⁰ And thou shalt eat thy food by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat them. ¹¹ And thou shalt drink water by measure, even from time to time thou shalt drink the sixth part of a hin. ¹² And thou shalt eat them as a barley cake: thou shalt ³bake them before their eyes in man's dung.

¹³ And thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Thus shall the children of Israel eat unclean things among the Gentiles. ¹⁴ Then I said, ⁴Not so, Lord God of Israel: surely my soul has not been defiled with uncleanness; nor have I eaten, that which died of itself or was torn of beasts from my birth until now; neither has any corrupt flesh entered into my mouth.

¹⁵ And he said to me, Behold, I have given thee dung of oxen instead of man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy loaves upon it.

¹⁶ And he said to me, Son of man, behold,

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I break the support of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight and in want; and shall drink water by measure, and in a state of ruin: ¹⁷ that they may want bread and water; and a man and his brother shall be brought to ruin, and they shall pine away in their iniquities.