Ezekiel 4 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

"Now you, son of man — take a brick, set it down in front of you, and carve into it the image of a city: Jerusalem."

"Then lay siege against it — build a siege wall around it, pile up an assault ramp, set up military camps, and position battering rams on every side."

"Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Turn your face toward it — it will be under siege, and you will press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel."

"Then lie on your left side and place the guilt of the house of Israel upon yourself. For as many days as you lie on that side, you will carry their guilt."

"I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their guilt — three hundred and ninety days. This is how you will carry the guilt of the house of Israel."

"When you have finished those days, lie down again — this time on your right side — and carry the guilt of the house of Judah for forty days. I have assigned you one day for each year."

"Set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and prophesy against her."

"And look — I will tie you with ropes so you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege."

"Now take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt — put them all in one container and make bread from them. You will eat this for the three hundred and ninety days you lie on your side."

"The food you eat will be rationed — twenty shekels' weight per day. You will eat it at set times."

"And the water you drink will be rationed — one-sixth of a hin per day. You will drink it at set times."

"And you will eat it like a barley cake — baking it over dried human excrement as they watch."

And Yahweh said, "This is how the people of Israel will eat their bread — made unclean — among the nations where I will drive them."

Then I said, "Please, Sovereign Yahweh — no! I have never made myself unclean. From my youth until now, I have never eaten anything that died on its own or was torn by wild animals. No foul meat has ever entered my mouth."

He said to me, "Very well — I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement. You may bake your bread over that."

Then he said to me, "Son of man, I am about to cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, in anguish. They will drink water by measure, in horror."

"They will run short of bread and water. They will look at each other in horror and waste away under the weight of their guilt."