Chapter 4

  And you, son of man, take a back and put it before you and on it make a picture of a town, even Jerusalem.  

  And make an attack on it, shutting it in, building strong places against it, and making high an earthwork against it; and put up tents against it, placing engines all round it for smashing down its walls.  

  And take a flat iron plate, and put it for a wall of iron between you and the town: and let your face be turned to it, and it will be shut in and you will make an attack on it. This will be a sign to the children of Israel.  

  Then, stretching yourself out on your left side, take the sin of the children of Israel on yourself: for as long as you are stretched out, so long will the sin of the children of Israel be on you.  

  For I have had the years of their sin measured for you by a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: and you will take on yourself the sin of the children of Israel.  

  And when these days are ended, turning on your right side, you are to take on yourself the sin of the children of Judah: forty days, a day for a year, I have had it fixed for you.  

  And let your face be turned to where Jerusalem is shut in, with your arm uncovered, and be a prophet against it.  

  And see, I will put bands on you; and you will be stretched out without turning from one side to the other till the days of your attack are ended.  

  And take for yourself wheat and barley and different sorts of grain, and put them in one vessel and make bread for yourself from them; all the days when you are stretched on your side it will be your food.  

  And you are to take your food by weight, twenty shekels a day: you are to take it at regular times.  

  And you are to take water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: you are to take it at regular times.  

  And let your food be barley cakes, cooking it before their eyes with the waste which comes out of a man.  

  And the Lord said, Even so the children of Israel will have unclean bread for their food among the nations where I am driving them.  

  Then I said, Ah, Lord! see, my soul has never been unclean, and I have never taken as my food anything which has come to a natural death or has been broken by beasts, from the time when I was young even till now; no disgusting flesh has ever come into my mouth.  

  Then he said to me, See, I have given you cow's waste in place of man's waste, and you will make your bread ready on it.  

  And he said to me, Son of man, see, I will take away from Jerusalem her necessary bread: they will take their bread by weight and with care, measuring out their drinking-water with fear and wonder:  

  So that they may be in need of bread and water and be wondering at one another, wasting away in their sin.