Eze 4 | LSB | STEP | “Now as for you, son of man, get yourself a brick, set it before you, and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem.

‏ Ezekiel 4

Ezekiel Bears Israel’s Iniquity

1 “Now as for you, son of man, get yourself a brick, set it before you, and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem. 2 Then set a siege against it, build a siege wall against it, ^{▼▼Lit cast}raise up a ramp against it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams against it all around. 3 Now as for you, get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and establish your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel.

4 “Now as for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. 5 Now I have set a number of days for you corresponding to the years of their iniquity, 390 days; thus you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6 And you shall complete these, and you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have set it for you for forty days, a day for each year. 7 Then you shall establish your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it. 8 Now behold, I will set ropes upon you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

Making Unclean Bread

9 “Now as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; set 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, 390 days. 10 And your food which you eat shall be ^{▼▼Approx. 8 oz. or 220 gm, a shekel was approx. 0.4 oz. or 11 gm}twenty 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 ^{▼▼A hin was approx. 1 gal. or 3.8 l}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 dung.” 13 Then Yahweh said, “Thus will the sons of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations where I will banish them.” 14 But I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, I have never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any offensive meat ever entered my mouth.” 15 Then He said to me, “See, I will set for 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 break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they will drink water by measure and in desolation 17 because bread and water will be lacking; and they will be in desolation with one another and rot away in their iniquity.