Ezekiel

Symbolic Actions

Son of man, take a clay tablet; set it before you and draw on it the city of Jerusalem.

Then act as if you were laying siege to it; dig a trench around it and build a ramp; set up tents and a battering ram against it.

Take an iron pan; place it as a wall of iron between you and the city, and look toward the city: it is under siege, and you are the one besieging it. All this will be a sign for the people of Israel.

Lie on your left side, taking upon yourself the sin of Israel, for you will bear their sin as long as you lie on it.

I have assigned to you a number of days, three hundred ninety days, the same number of years they sinned, during which you will bear the punishment of the house of Israel.

When you have finished, lie back down on your right side and bear the sin of Judah for forty days—one day representing a year.

Then you shall turn your face and your exposed arm toward the siege of Jerusalem and prophesy against it.

I will bind you with cords to keep you from turning from one side to the other until you’ve finished the days of your confinement.

Take some wheat and barley, some beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them all in one container and make some bread; this is what you will eat all the time you are lying on your side—three hundred and ninety days.

The food you eat will be a daily portion of eight ounces.

You will drink two-thirds of a quart of water daily.

Eat the food as you would a barley cake. You will cook it publicly on human dung,

for that is the way—says the Lord—the people of Israel will eat unclean bread among the nations where I shall drive them.”

I said: “Ah, Lord God! I have not been defiled: from childhood to now, I have never eaten any animal found dead or torn; unclean meat has never entered my mouth.”

He then said: “Very well! I permit you to use cow dung instead of human dung for baking your bread.”

He continued: “Son of man, I will cut off the food supply in Jerusalem. They will eat only rationed bread with anxiety and despair,

drinking water sparingly, as food and water become scarce. All will waste away because of their guilt.

There was a room entered from the entrance of the gates. It was here that they had to wash the holocaust.

And on either side of the gate entrance, there were two tables for slaughtering the burnt offering, the sacrifice for sin, and the sacrifice of repayment.

Going northward to the gate, there were two tables outside, and two more tables at the entrance end of the gate.

There were four tables inside and four tables outside the entrance; all in all, eight tables where the sacrifices were offered.

There were also four tables made of dressed stone for burnt offerings, each a cubit and a half long, wide, and high, where all the necessary items for killing the burnt offering and sacrifices were placed.

Rims, a handbreadth wide, went all around the top; and on these tables was the flesh of the offerings.

He took me into the inner court; there were two lodges in the inner court: one, at the side of the north gate, facing south, and the other, at the side of the south gate, facing north.

He told me: “The lodge looking south is for the priests in charge of the temple,

and the lodge looking north is for the priests who serve the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, the only sons of Levi who approach the Lord to serve him.”