New Revised Standard NRS
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 And you, O mortal, take a brick and set it before you. On it portray a city, Jerusalem;
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And you, son of man, take a back and put it before you and on it make a picture of a town, even Jerusalem.
2 and put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a ramp against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around.
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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.
3 Then take an iron plate and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; 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.
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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.
4 Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it; you shall bear their punishment for the number of the days that you lie there.
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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.
5 For I assign to you a number of days, three hundred ninety days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment; and so you shall bear the punishment of the house of Israel.
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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 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, one day for each year.
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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.
7 You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and with your arm bared you shall prophesy against it.
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And let your face be turned to where Jerusalem is shut in, with your arm uncovered, and be a prophet against it.
8 See, I am putting cords on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.
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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.
9 And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred ninety days, you shall eat it.
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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.
10 The food that you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; at fixed times you shall eat it.
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And you are to take your food by weight, twenty shekels a day: you are to take it at regular times.
11 And you shall drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; at fixed times you shall drink.
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And you are to take water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: you are to take it at regular times.
12 You shall eat it as a barley-cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.
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And let your food be barley cakes, cooking it before their eyes with the waste which comes out of a man.
13 The Lord said, "Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread, unclean, among the nations to which I will drive them."
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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.
14 Then I said, "Ah Lord God! I have never defiled myself; from my youth up until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by animals, nor has carrion flesh come into my mouth."
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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.
15 Then he said to me, "See, I will let you have cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread."
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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.
16 Then he said to me, Mortal, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay.
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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:
17 Lacking bread and water, they will look at one another in dismay, and waste away under their punishment.
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So that they may be in need of bread and water and be wondering at one another, wasting away in their sin.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.