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Ezekiel 4

4 Yahweh continued to speak to me: “As for you, mortal human, find yourself a large clay brick. Then, you should place it in front of you and draw a picture of the city of Jerusalem on it.” 2 Then, pretend to lay siege to your drawing of Jerusalem! Draw a wall of siegeworks around it that enables soldiers to shoot arrows above the wall! Construct a siege ramp that allows soldiers to climb over the outer walls! Post enemy soldiers outside of the city! Assemble battering rams in your drawing that surround Jerusalem to knock down its outer gates! 3 Then, find yourself an iron frying pan, and set it so that it resembles a vast iron wall. It should separate you and your drawing of Jerusalem on the clay brick. Then, firmly resolve within yourself to besiege the city until your army destroys and captures it. This symbolic action will warn the Israelite people of the coming judgment against them.

4-5 4-5Next, you should lie down on your left side and pretend to bear the entirety of the sins of the people of the northern kingdom of Israel on your right side, as if they were a heavy burden. You must continue to lie down and symbolically endure the weight of the sins of the northern kingdom of the Israelite people for a symbolic number of days. Now, I myself have determined the exact length of time during which you should do this: One day for each of the years that the northern kingdom of Israel has sinned against me. So you must perform this symbolic act for 390 days, and bear the sins of the northern kingdom of the Israelite people.

6 When you have finished lying on your left side for 390 days, you should lie down a second time. This time, lie on your right side, and symbolically bear the sins of the Israelite people—this time, the southern kingdom of Judah. I have determined that you should, once again, lie down one day for each of the years that I will punish the people of Judah for their sins against me: 40 days. 7 So, you should firmly resolve within yourself with regard to your drawing of the siege of Jerusalem, and stretch out your bare arm against it. As you do this, you must proclaim my prophetic messages against the city. 8 Now, pay attention! I am going to fix you in place as you lie down. You will not be able to turn from one side to the other, as though I have tied you down with ropes. You will remain this way until you have finished lying down for the number of days that I have determined for your symbolic act.

9 As for you, you should acquire portions of wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and rye. You should store these together in a single container and use the mixed grains, seeds, and legumes to bake bread for yourself. You will eat this bread throughout the 390 days during which you lie on your left side. 10 Your meals must be weighed to be eight ounces a day. You must eat it at fixed times throughout the day. 11 Likewise, any water that you drink must be measured to be a pint and a half. You must also drink at fixed times throughout the day. 12 You should eat your meals like you would eat a loaf of barley bread. However, you must bake your food while the Israelite people are watching, using human excrement for fuel.” 13 Yahweh continued to talk to me. He said, “Your carefully weighed and measured meals that you cook over human excrement will symbolize to the Israelite people that they too will resort to eating food that is unacceptable to me when I force them out of their land to live among the people nations that surround them.”

14 But I declared, “Oh, Sovereign Yahweh! Please, do not force me to eat my meals in this ritually impure manner! I have never done anything that caused a priest to declare that I was not able to worship in your presence. As long as I have been alive, I have never once eaten the disgusting meat of roadkill or carrion, nor have I ever eaten any desecrated meat from a spoiled sacrifice!”

15 Yahweh replied, “Very well. I will allow you to bake your bread using dried cow manure instead of human excrement for fuel.”

16 Then he said to me, “Mortal human, pay attention to what I am about to do! I am going to remove Jerusalem’s supply of bread, on which they rely like a walking stick. When I do this, the people who live in Jerusalem will resort to anxiously rationing their meager meals and drinking their carefully allocated portions of water in increasing panic. 17 This will happen because I will make food and water scarce for the people who live in Jerusalem. Every individual will feel a horrified shock of terror. Because I am punishing them, the wrongs that they have committed will cause them to experience life as if they were something that someone has left out to rot.”

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