1 “Now, human, get yourself a brick, put it in front of you, and draw a map of Jerusalem on it.
2 Then surround it with an army. Build battle works against the city and a dirt road to the top of the city walls. Set up camps around it, and put heavy logs in place to break down the walls.
3 Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up like an iron wall between you and the city. Turn your face toward the city as if to attack it and then attack. This is a sign to Israel.
4 “Then lie down on your left side, and take the guilt of Israel on yourself. Their guilt will be on you for the number of days you lie on your left side.
5 I have given you the same number of days as the years of the people’s sin. So you will have the guilt of Israel’s sin on you for three hundred ninety days.
6 “After you have finished these three hundred ninety days, lie down a second time, on your right side. You will then have the guilt of Judah on you. I will give it to you for forty days, a day for each year of their sin.
7 Then you will look toward Jerusalem, which is being attacked. With your arm bare, you will prophesy against Jerusalem.
8 I will put ropes on you so you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your attack on Jerusalem.
9 “Take wheat, barley, beans, small peas, and millet seeds, and put them in one bowl, and make them into bread for yourself. You will eat it the three hundred ninety days you lie on your side.
10 You will eat eight ounces of food every day at set times.
11 You will drink about two-thirds of a quart of water every day at set times.
12 Eat your food as you would eat a barley cake, baking it over human dung where the people can see.”
13 Then the Lord said, “In the same way Israel will eat unclean food among the nations where I force them to go.”
14 But I said, “No, Lord God! I have never been made unclean. From the time I was young until now I’ve never eaten anything that died by itself or was torn by animals. Unclean meat has never entered my mouth.”
15 “Very well,” he said. “Then I will give you cow’s dung instead of human dung to use for your fire to bake your bread.”
16 He also said to me, “Human, I am going to cut off the supply of bread to Jerusalem. They will eat the bread that is measured out to them, and they will worry as they eat. They will drink water that is measured out to them, and they will be in shock as they drink it.
17 This is because bread and water will be hard to find. The people will be shocked at the sight of each other, and they will become weak because of their sin.