The Bible in Basic English BBE
Good News Translation GNT
1 And you, son of man, take a back and put it before you and on it make a picture of a town, even Jerusalem.
1
God said, "Mortal man, get a brick, put it in front of you, and scratch lines on it to represent the city of Jerusalem.
2 And make an attack on it, shutting it in, building strong places against it, and making high an earthwork against it; and put up tents against it, placing engines all round it for smashing down its walls.
2
Then, to represent a siege, put trenches, earthworks, camps, and battering rams all around it.
3 And take a flat iron plate, and put it for a wall of iron between you and the town: and let your face be turned to it, and it will be shut in and you will make an attack on it. This will be a sign to the children of Israel.
3
Take an iron pan and set it up like a wall between you and the city. Face the city. It is under siege, and you are the one besieging it. This will be a sign to the nation of Israel.
4 Then, stretching yourself out on your left side, take the sin of the children of Israel on yourself: for as long as you are stretched out, so long will the sin of the children of Israel be on you.
4
"Then lie down on your left side, and I will place on you the guilt of the nation of Israel. For 390 days you will stay there and suffer because of their guilt. I have sentenced you to one day for each year their punishment will last.
5 For I have had the years of their sin measured for you by a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: and you will take on yourself the sin of the children of Israel.
6 And when these days are ended, turning on your right side, you are to take on yourself the sin of the children of Judah: forty days, a day for a year, I have had it fixed for you.
6
When you finish that, turn over on your right side and suffer for the guilt of Judah for forty days - one day for each year of their punishment.
7 And let your face be turned to where Jerusalem is shut in, with your arm uncovered, and be a prophet against it.
7
"Fix your eyes on the siege of Jerusalem. Shake your fist at the city and prophesy against it.
8 And see, I will put bands on you; and you will be stretched out without turning from one side to the other till the days of your attack are ended.
8
I will tie you up so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until the siege is over.
9 And take for yourself wheat and barley and different sorts of grain, and put them in one vessel and make bread for yourself from them; all the days when you are stretched on your side it will be your food.
9
"Now take some wheat, barley, beans, peas, millet, and spelt. Mix them all together and make bread. That is what you are to eat during the 390 days you are lying on your left side.
10 And you are to take your food by weight, twenty shekels a day: you are to take it at regular times.
10
You will be allowed eight ounces of bread a day, and it will have to last until the next day.
11 And you are to take water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: you are to take it at regular times.
11
You will also have a limited amount of water to drink, two cups a day.
12 And let your food be barley cakes, cooking it before their eyes with the waste which comes out of a man.
12
You are to build a fire out of dried human excrement, bake bread on the fire, and eat it where everyone can see you."
13 And the Lord said, Even so the children of Israel will have unclean bread for their food among the nations where I am driving them.
13
The Lord said, "This represents the way the Israelites will have to eat food which the Law forbids, when I scatter them to foreign countries."
14 Then I said, Ah, Lord! see, my soul has never been unclean, and I have never taken as my food anything which has come to a natural death or has been broken by beasts, from the time when I was young even till now; no disgusting flesh has ever come into my mouth.
14
But I replied, "No, Sovereign Lord! I have never defiled myself. From childhood on I have never eaten meat from any animal that died a natural death or was killed by wild animals. I have never eaten any food considered unclean."
15 Then he said to me, See, I have given you cow's waste in place of man's waste, and you will make your bread ready on it.
15
So God said, "Very well. I will let you use cow dung instead, and you can bake your bread on that."
16 And he said to me, Son of man, see, I will take away from Jerusalem her necessary bread: they will take their bread by weight and with care, measuring out their drinking-water with fear and wonder:
16
And he added, "Mortal man, I am going to cut off the supply of bread for Jerusalem. The people there will be distressed and anxious as they measure out the food they eat and the water they drink.
17 So that they may be in need of bread and water and be wondering at one another, wasting away in their sin.
17
They will run out of bread and water; they will be in despair, and they will waste away because of their sins."
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.