Symbolic Representations of the Fate Awaiting Jerusalem

4 Do thou also, son of man, take a tile, and set it before thee, and portray upon it a city, even Jerusalem; 2 and lay siege against it, and build a siege wall against it, and throw up a mound against it; pitch camps also against it, and plant battering rams about it. 3 And take thou an iron plate, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face toward it and so it shall be in a state of siege, and thou shalt lay a siege against it; and this is a sign to the house of Israel.

4 And do thou lie upon thy left side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. According to the number of days thou liest on it thou shalt bear their iniquities. 5 I assign thee for the years of their iniquity a fixed number of days, one hundred and ninety days. Thus thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6 And when thou hast completed these, thou shalt lie on thy right side, and bear the guilt of the house of Judah forty days, a day for a year I assign thee. 7 And thou shalt turn thy face and thy bared arm toward the siege of Jerusalem, and prophesy against her. 8 See, I put bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn from one side to the other until thou hast finished the days of thy siege.

9 Do thou also take for thyself wheat and barley, and beans and lentils, and millet and spelt, and put them in a vessel, and make bread for thyself of them. Thou shalt eat of it the number of the days that thou liest on thy side (one hundred and ninety days). 10 Thou shalt eat thy food by weight, twenty shekels a day; at fixed intervals shalt thou eat it. Thou shalt eat it in the form of barley cakes, and bake it in their presence on human dung. 11 Thou shalt drink water by measure, one sixth of a bin; thou shalt drink it at fixed intervals. 12 { } 13 And Jehovah said, Thus shall the Israelites eat their food unclean among the nations, whither I shall drive them. 14 And I said, Ah, Lord Jehovah, from my youth until now I have never been defiled, nor have I eaten what died of itself, or was torn by beasts, nor hath abominable flesh entered my mouth. 15 Then he said to me, See, I allow thee to use cow’s dung instead of human dung: on it thou mayest prepare thy food. 16 He also said to me, Son of man, I am about to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and in terror, and drink water by measure and in dismay, 17 that, lacking bread and water, each man may be filled with dismay and waste away because of his iniquity.

5 And do thou, son of man, take a short sword and use it as a barber’s razor, and pass it over thy head and beard. Then take the balances and divide the hair. 2 A third part burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are complete; and take a third part and smite with the sword round about the city; and a third part scatter to the wind. But take a few of them and wrap them up in thy skirts; 3 { } 4 and of these again take some and burn them in the fire.

5 Then thou shalt say to all the house of Israel, ’Thus saith Jehovah: "This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the midstu of the nations and countries round about her. 6 But she hath rebelled against mine ordinances more wickedly than the nations; and against my statutes more than the countries round about her. For they rejected mine ordinances and have not walked in my statutes." 7 Therefore thus saith Jehovah: "Because ye have been more rebellious than the nations round about you, in that ye have not walked in my statutes nor kept my ordinances; but have done according to the ordinances of the nations that are round about you," 8 therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah,"behold I also am against thee and will execute judgment against thee in the sight of the nations. 9 And I will do in thee that which I have not done and the like of which I will not do again, because of all thine abominations. 10 Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgment on thee, and I will scatter the whole remnant of thee to every wind. 11 Therefore, as I live," is the oracle of Jehovah, "because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all my detestable things and with all thine abominations, I will also drive thee away. And mine eye shall not spare and I also will defile thee. 12 A third part of these shall die by the pestilence and perish with famine in the midst of thee, and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee, and a third part I will scatter to every wind and pursue with the sword.

13 Thus will mine anger be vented, and I will appease my fury on them, and they shall know that I, Jehovah, have spoken in mine indignation, when I have vented mine anger on them. 14 And I will make thee a desolation among the nations which are about thee, in the eyes of every passer by. 15 And thou shalt be an object of scorn and derision, of instruction and dismay to the nations which are round about thee, when I execute judgments upon thee in anger and fury and in my wrathful rebukes, I, Jehovah, have promised. 16 When I send against you mine evil arrows, which shall destroy you, I will send famine upon you and break your staff of life. 17 And I will send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave you, and pestilence and bloodshed shall pass through you, and I will bring a sword upon you; I, Jehovah, have said it."’