The Father Signs the Siege of Jerusalem
Ezekiel performs our Father's siege as street theater: a brick carved into Jerusalem, an iron griddle for a wall, 390 days lying on one side and forty on the other, rationed bread and measured water. He protests cooking over human waste and gets cow dung instead.
4 1"You, son of man, take a brick, set it before you, and carve a city on it—Jerusalem. 2Lay siege to it: build a siege wall against it, raise a ramp against it, set camps against it, place battering rams around it. 3Take an iron griddle; set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Face it; it will be under siege, and you will press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.
4"You, lie on your left side and lay the guilt of Israel's house on it. The days you lie on it, you'll bear their guilt. 5For I have assigned you their years of guilt as a number of days—390 days—so you will bear the guilt of the house of Israel.
6"When you finish these, lie down again on your right side and bear the guilt of the house of Judah forty days; I have assigned you a day for each year. 7Turn toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and prophesy against it. 8Look, I will tie you with ropes so you cannot turn from side to side until you finish the days of your siege.
9"Take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in one jar and make bread from them. Eat it during the days you lie on your side—390 days. 10Weigh out the food you eat—about eight ounces a day; eat it at set times. 11Drink measured water—about a pint a day; drink it at set times. 12You are to eat it as barley cakes, baking it in plain sight over human waste." 13And our Father said, "So the children of Israel will eat their bread unclean among the nations where I drive them."
14Then I said, "Ah, Sovereign Father! I've never made myself unclean. From my youth till now I've eaten nothing that died on its own or was torn by animals, and no foul meat has entered my mouth."
15He said to me, "See, I let you use cow dung instead of human waste to cook your bread over."
16He said to me, "Son of man, look, I am breaking the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, with anxiety, and drink water by measure, in dismay, 17because bread and water will be scarce. They will stare at one another in horror and waste away in their guilt."
