Enemies will attack Jerusalem
1The Lord said to me: ‘Son of man, you must take a brick and put it down in front of you and draw a picture of the city of Jerusalem on the brick. 2Then you must do everything that enemies do when they attack a city: You must build up sand against the wall and build a ramp against it, and make tents and battering_rams around the city. 3But you must take an iron plate and put it down between you and the city. It must be an iron wall. You must look at the city as if you want to attack it.
4Then you must lie down on your left side and take the guilt and punishment for the sins of the people of Israel on yourself. You must suffer and take their punishment as long as you lie down on your left side. 5I have decided that you must lie down on your left side for 390 days and suffer and take the punishment for the people of Israel, one day for each year of punishment.
6After you have lain down for 390 days on your left side, you must lie down on your right side for 40 days to suffer and take the punishment of the people of Judah. I have decided that you must suffer and take their punishment, one day for each year.
7You must look towards Jerusalem, the city that has enemies around it. You must roll up your sleeves and prophesy_against the city. 8I will put ropes around you so that you will not be able to turn over from one side to the other side until you have finished showing them for how long the enemies will attack the city. After that, you can turn over to the other side.
9You must take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt, put them all together in a bowl and prepare it to make food for yourself. You must eat this food as long as you lie down on your left side, for 390 days. 10You must eat 20 shekels of food every day. 11You must measure how much water you drink. It must be one 6th_hin every day. 12You must bake bread to eat, like barley cake, but you must cook it on a fire that you have made with human dung and everyone must see what you are doing.’
13The Lord also said: ‘The Israelites will also have to eat their impure food like this among other nations, among the people where I will chase them.’
14Then I said: ‘O Lord, my God, I have never made myself impure by eating impure food of animals that have died or that have been killed by wild animals. I have never done that from the time that I was young, to this day. I have also not eaten meat that has started to go bad.’
15Then the Lord said to me: ‘Well, then you may cook your food on fire made of dung of a cow and not human dung.’
16After that the Lord said to me: ‘Son of man, I will now stop food and water from coming into Jerusalem. Those people will now weigh their food and become afraid. They will measure their water and become very worried. 17They will not have enough food or water. They will become weak and be shocked when they look at each other. They will slowly die because they have sinned.’
