God has Ezekiel act out the siege of Jerusalem with a clay brick, an iron plate and lying on his side for many days. He is to eat limited rations as a sign of the famine in the city.
1 Thou also, son of man , take thee a tile , and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city , even Jerusalem :
2 And 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 .
3 Moreover 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 .
4 Lie 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 .
5 For 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 .
6 And 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 .
7 Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem , and thine arm shall be uncovered , and thou shalt prophesy against it.
8 And, 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 .
9 Take 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.
10 And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight , twenty shekels a day : from time to time shalt thou eat it.
11 Thou shalt drink also water by measure , the sixth part of an hin : from time to time shalt thou drink .
12 And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes , and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man , in their sight .
13 And the LORD said , Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles , whither I will drive them.
14 Then 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 .
15 Then he said unto me, Lo , I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung , and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.
16 Moreover 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 :
17 That they may want bread and water , and be astonied one with another , and consume away for their iniquity .