A prophetic description of the siege of Jerusalem, and the famine that
shall reign there.
4:1. And thou, O son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee:
and draw upon it the plan of the city of Jerusalem.
4:2. And lay siege against it, and build forts, and cast up a mount,
and set a camp against it, and place battering rams round about it.
4:3. And take unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron
between thee and the city: and set thy face resolutely against it, and
it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it: it is a sign
to the house of Israel.
4:4. And thou shalt sleep upon thy left side, and shalt lay the
iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, according to the number of
the days that thou shalt sleep upon it, and thou shalt take upon thee
their iniquity.
4:5. And I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according
to the number of the days three hundred and ninety days: and thou shalt
bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
4:6. And when thou hast accomplished this, thou shalt sleep again upon
thy right side, and thou shalt take upon thee the iniquity of the house
of Juda forty days: a day for a year, yea, a day for a year I have
appointed to thee.
4:7. And thou shalt turn thy face to the siege of Jerusalem and thy arm
shall be stretched out: and thou shalt prophesy against it.
4:8. Behold I have encompassed thee with bands: and thou shalt not turn
thyself from one side to the other, till thou hast ended the days of
thy siege.
4:9. And take to thee wheat and barley, and beans, and lentils, and
millet, and fitches, 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: three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.
4:10. And thy meat that thou shalt eat, shall be in weight twenty
staters a day: from time to time thou shalt eat it.
4:11. And thou shalt drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin:
from time to time thou shalt drink it,
Hin.... That is, a measure of liquids containing about ten pints.
4:12. And thou shalt eat it as barley bread baked under the ashes: and
thou shalt cover it, in their sight, with the dung that cometh out of a
man.
4:13. And the Lord said: So shall the children of Israel eat their
bread all filthy among the nations whither I will cast them out.
4:14. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God, behold my soul hath not been
defiled, and from my infancy even till now, I have not eaten any thing
that died of itself, or was torn by beasts, and no unclean flesh hath
entered into my mouth.
4:15. And he said to me: Behold I have given thee neat’s dung for man’s
dung, and thou shalt make thy bread therewith.
4:16. And he said to me: Son of man: Behold, I will break in pieces the
staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and
with care: and they shall drink water by measure, and in distress.
4:17. So that when bread and water fail, every man may fall against his
brother, and they may pine away in their iniquities.