Ezekiel 4
What Happens in This Chapter
God tells Ezekiel to act out the attack on Jerusalem using a clay brick and an iron pan. He must lie on his left side for 390 days and his right side for 40 days, one day for each year of Israel's and Judah's sin, tied with ropes. He must also eat weighed-out bread and measured water, baked over dried dung; when Ezekiel says he has never eaten anything unclean, God lets him use cow dung instead. God explains that the people will eat unclean bread in the lands where He sends them, and that food and water in Jerusalem will run short.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:
1God said, "Son of man, take a clay brick." "Son of man" means "human being." "Set the brick down in front of you. Draw the city Jerusalem on it."
2And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.
2"Now act out an army attacking that city. Build a wall around it. Pile up a dirt ramp. Set up army camps. Put battering rams all around it. A battering ram was a big log used to smash gates."
3Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
3"Then take an iron pan. Stand it up like an iron wall between you and the city. Turn your face toward the city. The city is under attack, and you are the one attacking it. This will be a sign for the people of Israel."
4Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.
4"Then lie down on your left side. Take the sin of the people of Israel onto yourself. You will carry their sin for as many days as you lie there."
5For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
5"I have given you 390 days. That is one day for each year of their sin. This is how you will carry Israel's sin."
6And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.
6"When those days are over, lie down again, this time on your right side. Carry the sin of the people of Judah for 40 days. I have given you one day for each year."
7Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.
7"Turn your face toward Jerusalem, the city under attack. Pull your sleeve back so your arm is bare. Then speak my words against the city."
8And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.
8"Look, I will tie you up with ropes. You will not be able to turn from one side to the other. You will stay that way until your days of acting out the attack are done."
9Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.
9"Now take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt. Spelt is a kind of wheat. Put them all in one jar. Make bread out of them. Eat that bread for the 390 days you lie on your side."
10And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.
10"Weigh your food. Eat twenty shekels' worth each day. Eat it at set times."
Twenty shekels was about eight ounces of food, or 230 grams, for a whole day. That is a very small amount.
11Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.
11"Measure your water too. Drink a sixth of a hin each day. Drink it at set times."
A sixth of a hin was a little over two cups of water for a whole day.
12And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.
12"Eat it the way you would eat a barley cake. Bake it over dried human waste, where the people can watch you."
13And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.
13Then the LORD said, "That is how the people of Israel will eat unclean bread. They will eat it among the other nations, where I will send them."
14Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.
14Then I said, "Oh, Lord GOD! I have never made myself unclean. Since I was young I have never eaten an animal that died on its own. I have never eaten one torn apart by wild animals. No unclean meat has ever gone into my mouth."
15Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.
15Then He said to me, "All right. I will let you use cow manure instead of human waste. Bake your bread over that."
16Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:
16Then He said to me, "Son of man, I am cutting off the food in Jerusalem. People will weigh out their bread and eat it worried. They will measure out their water and drink it feeling hopeless."
The King James wording says God will "break the staff of bread." That is an old way of saying He will cut off the food supply.
17That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.
17"They will not have enough bread or water. They will stare at each other in shock. They will waste away because of their sin."
In 1611 English, "want" means "lack," and "astonied" means "shocked."
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