1 “As for you, human being, take a clay slab, lay it down in front of you, and draw on it the city of Yerushalayim.
2 Show it under siege — build towers against it, raise earthworks against it, set up camps against it, and surround it with battering rams.
3 Then take an iron griddle and put it in place as a wall of iron between yourself and the city, and fix your gaze on it — the city is under siege, and you are the one besieging it. This will be a sign for the house of Isra’el.
4 “Next, you are to lie on your left side, and have it bear the guilt of the house of Isra’el — for as many days as you lie on your side, you will bear their guilt.
5 For I am assigning you one day for each year of their guilt; thus you are to bear the guilt of the house of Isra’el for 390 days.
6 Then, when you have finished that, you are to lie on your right side and bear the guilt of the house of Y’hudah for forty days, each day corresponding to a year; this is what I am assigning you.
7 You are to fix your gaze on the siege of Yerushalayim, and, with your arm bared, prophesy against it.
8 I am tying you down with ropes, and you are not to turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.
9 “Take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and buckwheat; put them together in one bowl; and make bread from it. For as long as you lie on your side, 390 days, this is what you are to eat.
10 Each day the food you eat must weigh only three-quarters of a pound; you may eat it from time to time [during the day].
11 You are also to drink a limited amount of water, two-thirds of a quart; you may drink it from time to time [during the day].
12 [The bread] you eat is to be baked like barley cakes; you are to bake it before their eyes, using human dung as fuel.”
13 Adonaisaid, “This is how the people of Isra’el will eat their food — unclean — in the nations where I am driving them.”
14 I objected: “No,AdonaiElohim! I have never defiled myself — from my youth until now I have never eaten anything that died by itself or was killed by wild animals; no such disgusting food has ever entered my mouth.”
15 He answered, “All right, I will give you cow dung to use instead of human dung, and you can prepare your bread on it.”
16 He then said to me, “Human being, I am going to cut off the supply of bread in Yerushalayim, so that they will anxiously weigh out bread to eat, and, horrified, ration water to drink.
17 Finally, due to lack of bread and water, they will stare at each other in shock, wasting away because of their guilt.”