Ezekiel 4

The Siege of Jerusalem Portrayed

1 # Isa 20.2; Ezek 5.1 “And you, O mortal, take a brick and set it before you. On it portray a city, Jerusalem, 2#Ezek 21.22and put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a ramp against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around. 3#Ezek 5.2; 12.6, 11; 24.24, 27Then take an iron plate and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.

4 # Lev 10.17; Num 18.1 “Then lie on your left side and place the guilt of the house of Israel upon it; you shall bear their guilt for the number of the days that you lie there. 5#Num 14.34For I assign to you a number of days, three hundred ninety days, equal to the number of the years of their guilt, and so you shall bear the guilt of the house of Israel. 6When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the guilt of the house of Judah; forty days I assign you, one day for each year. 7#v 3; Ezek 21.2You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and with your arm bared you shall prophesy against it. 8#Ezek 3.25See, I am putting cords on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

9“And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them into one vessel and make bread for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred ninety days, you shall eat it. 10The food that you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; at fixed times you shall eat it. 11And you shall drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; at fixed times you shall drink. 12#Isa 36.12You shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.” 13#Hos 9.3The Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread, unclean, among the nations to which I will drive them.” 14#Ex 22.31; Lev 17.15; Deut 14.3; Isa 65.4; Ezek 9.8; Acts 10.14Then I said, “Ah Lord God! I have never defiled myself; from my youth up until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by animals, nor has carrion flesh come into my mouth.” 15Then he said to me, “See, I will let you have cow’s dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.”

16 # vv 10, 11 ; Lev 26.26; Isa 3.1; Ezek 5.16; 12.19; 14.13Then he said to me, “Mortal, I am going to cut off the supply of bread#4.16 Heb staff of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with fearfulness, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay. 17#Lev 26.39; Ezek 24.23Lacking bread and water, they will look at one another in dismay and waste away under their punishment.

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Ezekiel 4: NRSVUE

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