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The Bible · 806 of 1189

Ezekiel 4

1.Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem: 2. And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about. 3. Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. 4. Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. 5. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year. 7. Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it. 8. And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.

9.Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof. 10. And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it. 11. Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink. 12. And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight. 13. And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them. 14. Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth. 15. Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith. 16. Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment: 17. That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.

Asked of Guide

Why does Ezekiel lie on his side 390 days, then 40 days, and eat measured, defiled food?

God tells Ezekiel to act out Jerusalem’s and Israel’s guilt: lying on his left side 390 days represents “the years of their iniquity” for Israel, and the 40 days on his right side represents Judah’s years. The prophet’s posture and the iron pan between him and the city dramatize a prolonged siege and God’s separation from the people while he bears their sin.

The measured rations—“twenty shekels a day” of mixed grains and water by measure—show famine and deprivation that will follow their unfaithfulness, and baking with dung symbolizes ritual and social defilement. This kind of symbolic action echoes Jeremiah’s enacted prophecies (see Jeremiah 13) where bodily signs visualize coming judgment.

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