CHAPTER 4
1 And thou, son of man, take to thee a tilestone; and thou shalt set it before thee, and thou shalt describe therein the city of Jerusalem.
2 And thou shalt ordain besieging against that Jerusalem; and thou shalt build strongholds, and thou shalt bear together [an heap of] earth, and thou shalt give hosts of battle against it, and thou shalt set engines by compass.
3 And take thou to thee an iron frying pan; and thou shalt set it into an iron wall betwixt thee and betwixt the city; and thou shalt set steadfastly thy face to it, and it shall be into besieging, and thou shalt encompass it; it is a sign to the house of Israel.
4 And thou shalt sleep on thy left side, and thou shalt put the wicked-nesses of the house of Israel on that side; in the number of days in which thou shalt sleep on that side, and thou shalt take the wickedness of them.
5 Forsooth I gave to thee the years of the wickedness of them by number of days, three hundred and ninety days; and thou shalt bear the wicked-ness of the house of Israel.
6 And when thou hast [ful] filled these things, thou shalt sleep the second time on thy right side. And thou shalt take the wickedness of the house of Judah by forty days; I gave to thee a day for a year, a day soothly for a year.
7 And thou shalt turn thy face to the besieging of Jerusalem; and thine arm shall be stretched forth, and thou shalt prophesy against it.
8 Lo! I have encompassed thee with bonds, and thou shalt not turn thee from this side into the other side, till thou [ful] fill the days of thy besieging.
9 And take thou to thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and fitches; and thou shalt put those [or them] into one vessel. And thou shalt make to thee loaves for the number of days, by which thou shalt sleep on thy side; by three hundred and ninety days thou shalt eat it.
10 Forsooth thy meat, which thou shalt eat, shall be in weight twenty staters in a day; from time till to time thou shalt eat it.
11 And thou shalt drink water in measure, the sixth part of hin; from time till to time thou shalt drink it.
12 And thou shalt eat it as barley bread baked under the ashes; and with the dung that goeth out of a man thou shalt cover it, before the eyes of them.
13 The Lord saith these things, So the sons of Israel shall eat their bread defouled among heathen men, to whom I shall cast them out.
14 And I said, A! A! A! Lord God, lo! my soul is not defouled, and from my young childhood till to now I ate not a thing dead by itself, and rent of beasts; and all unclean flesh entered not into my mouth.
15 And he said to me, Lo! I have given to thee the dung of oxes [or oxen] for men’s turds; and thou shalt make ready thy bread with it instead.
16 And he said to me, Son of man, lo! I shall all-break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat their bread in weight and in busyness, and they shall drink water in measure and in anguish;
17 that when bread and water fail, each man fall down to his brother, and they fail in their wickednesses.