Dual Panel1"And now, son of man, take a large brick and set it down in front of you. Then draw a map of the city of Jerusalem on it.
2Build siege ramps against the city walls. Surround it with enemy camps and battering rams.
3Then take an iron griddle and place it between you and the city. Turn toward it and demonstrate how the enemy will attack Jerusalem. This will be a warning to the people of Israel.
4"Now lie on your left side and place the sins of Israel on yourself. You are to bear their sins for the number of days you lie there on your side.
5You will bear Israel’s sins for 390 days––one day for each year of their sin.
6After that, turn over and lie on your right side for 40 days––one day for each year of Judah’s sin.
7"Meanwhile, continue your demonstration of the siege of Jerusalem. Lie there with your arm bared and prophesy her destruction.
8I will tie you up with ropes so you won’t be able to turn from side to side until the days of your siege have been completed.
9"Now go and get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use this food to make bread for yourself during the 390 days you will be lying on your side.
10Ration this out to yourself, eight ounces of food for each day, and eat it at set times.
11Then measure out a jar of water for each day, and drink it at set times.
12Each day prepare your bread as you would barley cakes. While all the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread.
13For this is what the LORD says: Israel will eat defiled bread in the Gentile lands, where I will banish them!"
14Then I said, "O Sovereign LORD, must I be defiled by using human dung? For I have never been defiled before. From the time I was a child until now I have never eaten any animal that died of sickness or that I found dead. And I have never eaten any of the animals that our laws forbid."
15"All right," the LORD said. "You may bake your bread with cow dung instead of human dung."
16Then he told me, "Son of man, I will cause food to be very scarce in Jerusalem. It will be weighed out with great care and eaten fearfully. The water will be portioned out drop by drop, and the people will drink it with dismay.
17Food and water will be so scarce that the people will look at one another in terror, and they will waste away under their punishment.