MSB Audio · Ezekiel 4
Majority Standard Bible
1 “Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you, and draw on it the city of Jerusalem.
2 Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp to it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it on all sides.
3 Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.
4 Then lie down on your left side and place the iniquity of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their iniquity for the number of days you lie on your side.
5 For I have assigned to you 390 days, according to the number of years of their iniquity. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
6 When you have completed these days, lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned to you 40 days, a day for each year.
7 You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it.
8 Now behold, I will tie you up with ropes so you cannot turn from side to side until you have finished the days of your siege.
9 But take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. This is what you are to eat during the 390 days you lie on your side.
10 You are to weigh out twenty shekels of food to eat each day, and you are to eat it at set times.
11 You are also to measure out a sixth of a hin of water to drink, and you are to drink it at set times.
12 And you shall eat the food as you would a barley cake, after you bake it over dried human excrement in the sight of the people.”
13 Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.”
14 “Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”
15 “Look,” He replied, “I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you may bake your bread over that.”
16 Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.
17 So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.
KJV
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.
1545 Luther's English Bible (LED)
Siege of the city of Jerusalem prefigured.
1 And thou, son of man, take a brick, and lay it before thee, and design thereon the city of Jerusalem.
2 And make a siege about it, and build a bulwark about it, and dig a debris about it, and make an army about it, and set goats round about it.
3 And take for thee an iron pan, and let it be an iron wall between thee and the city; and set thy face against it, and besiege it. This shall be a sign unto the house of Israel.
4 Thou shalt also lie upon thy left side, and put the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: as many days as thou shalt lie thereon, so long shalt thou bear their iniquity.
5 And I will make the years of their iniquity the number of days unto thee, even three hundred and ninety days: so long shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
6 And it shall come to pass, when thou hast finished these things, that thou shalt lie on thy right side afterward, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: for I will give thee here also a day for a year.
7 And set thy face and thy bare arm against Jerusalem that is besieged, and prophesy against her.
8 And, behold, I will put ropes upon thee, that thou shalt not turn from side to side, till thou hast finished the days of thy siege.
9 Now therefore take thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them all in a barrel, and make thee as many loaves of them as thou shalt lie on thy side three hundred and ninety days to eat,
10 And thy meat, which thou shalt eat daily, shall be twenty shekels. And thou shalt eat it from time to time.
11 The water also thou shalt drink according to the measure, even the sixth part of the hin; and thou shalt drink it from time to time.
12 Barley cakes shalt thou eat, which thou shalt bake with manure before their eyes.
13 And the LORD said, So must the children of Israel eat their unclean bread among the heathen, whither I have driven them.
14 And I said, O Lord GOD, behold, my soul hath never been defiled: for from my youth even unto this time I have eaten no carcase, neither have I torn any flesh; neither hath any unclean flesh entered into my mouth.
15 And he said unto me, Behold, I will let thee have cow dung for man dung, that thou mayest make thy bread.
16 And he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will take away the store of bread from Jerusalem, that they may eat the bread by weight with sorrow, and drink the water by measure with sorrow,
17 Because there shall be a lack of bread and water, and they shall mourn one with another, and be consumed in their iniquity.
1545 Luther's English Bible (LED)
Machine-translated from Luther's final 1545 German Bible
The LED is an English rendering of Martin Luther's final 1545 German Bible. According to BackToLuther, it was produced by using the DeepL Translator on Luther's German text, then processed, polished, formatted, and hyperlinked for reading, while preserving chapter headings and other notations from orthodox German Lutheran Bibles.
Source attribution: BackToLuther, “Luther's 1545 Bible - in English by… DeepL Translator (The LED Bible)”.
For print editions, see “1545 Luther's English Bible (LED): now in print”.
Related Reading
Continue from Ezekiel 4
Move from this chapter into the lectionary, the Confessions, Luther’s works, and the sermon archive through direct internal links.
Historic One-Year Lectionary
See where this text fits into the church year’s appointed readings and propers.
Book of Concord
Read the Lutheran Confessions alongside the scriptural text they confess.
Luther’s Works
Read Luther’s sermons and theological works connected to Scripture.
Podcast Archive
Listen to sermons, readings, and theological audio tied to the same biblical themes.