4 Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it a city, even Jerusalem: ² and lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it round about. ³ And take thou unto thee an iron ^[a]pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ Moreover lie thou upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity. ⁵ For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be unto thee a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁶ And again, when thou hast accomplished these, thou shalt lie on thy right side, and shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah: forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it unto thee. ⁷ And thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with thine arm uncovered; and thou shalt prophesy against it. ⁸ And, behold, I lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to the other, till thou hast accomplished the days of thy siege.

⁹ Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, even three hundred and ninety days, shalt thou eat thereof. ¹⁰ And thy food which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it. ¹¹ And thou shalt drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time shalt thou drink. ¹² And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it in their sight with dung that cometh out of man. ¹³ And Jehovah said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations whither I will drive them. ¹⁴ Then said I, Ah Lord Jehovah! behold, my soul hath not been polluted; for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn of beasts; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth. ¹⁵ Then he said unto me, See, I have given thee cow’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread thereon. ¹⁶ Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure, and in dismay: ¹⁷ that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.