English Standard Version ESV
Common English Bible CEB
1 “And you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you, and engrave on it a city, even Jerusalem.
1
You, human one, take a brick. Put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it.
2 And put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it. Set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around.
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Prepare the siege: Build a wall, construct ramps, set up army camps, and place battering rams all around.
3 And you, take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; and set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.
3
Take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Face it directly. When it is under siege like this, press hard against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.
4 “Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment.
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Now, lie on your left side, and set the guilt of the house of Israel on it. For the length of time that you lie on your side, you will bear their punishment.
5 For I assign to you a number of days, days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment. So long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel.
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I appoint to you three hundred ninety days, one day for each year of their guilt. So you will bear the punishment of the house of Israel.
6 And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah. Forty days I assign you, a day for each year.
6
When you have completed these days, lie on your right side to bear the guilt of the house of Judah. I appoint forty days to you, one day for each year.
7 And you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against the city.
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With your arm stretched out, face the siege of Jerusalem directly and prophesy against it.
8 And behold, I will place cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, till you have completed the days of your siege.
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I've now bound you with cords so that you can't turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.
9 “And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer, and put them into a single vessel and make your bread from them. During the number of days that you lie on your side, days, you shall eat it.
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You, gather some wheat and barley, beans and lentils, and millet and spelt. Put them in a bowl and make your bread from them. Eat it during the three hundred ninety days that you lie on your side.
10 And your food that you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from day to day you shall eat it.
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At fixed times you will eat your food by weight, fourteen ounces a day.
11 And water you shall drink by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from day to day you shall drink.
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You will also ration your water by measure, drinking a sixth of a hin at fixed times each day.
12 And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung. ”
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Eat it like barley bread, and bake it on human excrement while they watch.
13 And the Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them. ”
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The LORD says: In this same way the Israelites will eat their unclean bread among the nations where I am scattering them.
14 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up till now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has tainted meat come into my mouth. ”
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And I said: "Ah, LORD God! I've never been unclean! From my childhood until now I've never eaten anything that wasn't properly slaughtered, and no unclean meat has ever entered my mouth!"
15 Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow’s dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread. ”
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He answered me: "Then I'll let you use cow dung instead of human excrement. You can make your bread over that."
16 Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay.
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Then he said to me: Human one, I'm destroying the food supply in Jerusalem. They will anxiously ration and eat their food, and in dismay they will dole out and drink their water.
17 I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and look at one another in dismay, and rot away because of their punishment.
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When their food and water dwindles away, everyone will be horrified, and they will waste away because of their guilt.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2025
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible