Siege of Jerusalem Predicted

1“Now you, son of man, get yourself a brick, place it before you, and inscribe a city on it—Jerusalem. 2Then lay siege against it, build a siege wall, pile up an assault ramp, set up camps, and place battering rams against it all around. 3Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city, and direct your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

4“Then you are to lie down on your left side and put the wrongdoing of the house of Israel on it; you shall bear their wrongdoing for the number of days that you lie on it. 5For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their wrongdoing, 390 days; so you shall bear the wrongdoing of the house of Israel. 6When you have completed these days, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the wrongdoing of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for each year. 7Then you shall direct your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it. 8Now behold, I will put ropes [a]around you so that you cannot turn from your one side to your other until you have completed the days of your siege.

Defiled Bread

9“But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put 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. 10Your food which you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time. 11The water you drink shall be a [b]sixth of a hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time. 12You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung.” 13Then the LORD said, “In this way the sons of Israel will eat their bread unclean among the nations where I will scatter them.” 14But I said, “Oh, Lord [c]GOD! Behold, [d]I have never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by animals, nor has any unclean meat ever entered my mouth!” 15Then He said to me, “See, I will give you cow’s dung in place of human dung, so that you may prepare your bread over it.” 16Moreover, 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 drink water by measure and in horror, 17because bread and water will be scarce; and they will tremble with one another and waste away in their guilt.