1 And you, son of man, take a brick {levenah: clay brick} and place it before you, and inscribe on it the outline of a city—Jerusalem {Yerushalayim: capital city}.
2 Then arrange a siege {matzor: siege encirclement} against it; build a siege wall against it, heap up a ramp {solelah: siege earthwork} against it, set camps against it, and station battering rams all around it.
3 Also take for yourself an iron pan {mahavat: flat metal plate} and set it up as an iron barrier between you and the city; fix your gaze toward it so that it may endure a siege, and press the siege upon it. This is a sign {ot: prophetic symbol} for the house of Israel.
4 Then lie on your left side and lay the iniquity {avonam: moral guilt} of the house of Israel upon it; for the full count {mispar: duration count} of the days that you lie there, you shall bear their iniquity.
5 I {YHWH, Consuming Judge} have set for you the years {shnei: years count} of their iniquity according to the number of days—three hundred and ninety days—so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
6 When you have completed these, you shall lie down again, on your right side, a second time {shenit: second occurrence} and bear the iniquity {avon: moral guilt} of the house of Judah. Forty days—a day for each year—I have assigned this to you.
7 And you shall direct your face {panekha: determined focus} toward Jerusalem’s siege {metzor: military blockade}, uncover your arm, and you shall prophesy against it.
8 And behold, I will put cords {avotim: physical restraints} upon you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege {metzurekha: restricted encirclement}.
9 And you shall take for yourself wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt, and put them into one vessel {kli: container for preparation}. Then you shall make bread {lechem: staple sustenance} from them for yourself. For the number of days you lie on your side—390 days—you shall eat it.
10 And the food that you eat shall be weighed out—twenty shekels {shekel: ancient weight unit} per day; from time to time {me'et ad-et: periodic intervals} you shall eat it.
11 And you shall drink water in measured provision {bimsurah: regulated distribution}, one-sixth {shishit: one-sixth division} of a hin, at designated times.
12 And you shall eat it as a barley cake {ugat: round loaf}; you shall bake it, before their eyes, using human dung {tseat: refuse}.
13 And the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge} said, "In this way the children of Israel will eat their bread defiled {tame: ritually unclean} among the nations where I will banish them."
14 Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD {Adonai YHWH, Supreme Ruler}, my soul has not been defiled. From my youth until this day I have eaten neither a carcass nor flesh torn by wild animals, and abominable flesh {pigul: ritually rejected} has not entered my mouth."
15 And He {YHWH, Provision Regulator} said to me, "See, I have given you cattle droppings {tsefi'ei: animal excretion} instead of human dung, and you shall make your bread upon them."
16 Moreover He {YHWH, Sovereign Judge} said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am breaking {shover: impending rupture} the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they will drink water by measure and in dismay.”
17 So that they will be short of bread and water, and each man with his brother will be appalled {nashamu: devastated by horror}, and they will waste away in their iniquity {ba-avonam: as a result of their guilt}.