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Major Prophets · WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE

Ezekiel 4

Visions of glory, judgment, responsibility, restoration, a new heart, and renewed presence.

Old Testament

Ezekiel 4

1“You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem.

2Lay siege against it, build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it. Also set camps against it and plant battering rams against it all around.

3Take for yourself an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city. Then set your face toward it. It will be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

4“Moreover lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. According to the number of the days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.

5For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

6“Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have appointed forty days, each day for a year, to you.

7You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it.

8Behold, I put ropes on you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your siege.

9“Take for yourself also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel. Make bread of it. According to the number of the days that you will lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it.

10Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time you shall eat it.

11You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin. From time to time you shall drink.

12You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.”

13The LORD said, “Even thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.”

14Then I said, “Ah Lord GOD! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals. No abominable meat has come into my mouth!”

15Then he said to me, “Behold, I have given you cow’s dung for man’s dung, and you shall prepare your bread on it.”

16Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness. They will drink water by measure, and in dismay;

17that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.

READ IN CONTEXT

Before applying this chapter

Visions of glory, judgment, responsibility, restoration, a new heart, and renewed presence. Read Ezekiel 4 within the complete Ezekiel overview, and use the contextual Bible reading guide before forming a personal application. Chapter divisions aid navigation, but the literary unit may begin earlier or continue into the next chapter.

Observe first

Mark repeated words, changes of speaker, commands, promises, contrasts, questions, and the relationship between paragraphs.

Apply responsibly

Distinguish description from command and immediate audience from later readers before forming a personal application.

TEXT-DERIVED READING NOTES

What to notice in Ezekiel 4

Ezekiel 4 contains 17 verses and about 479 words in this translation. These observations come from the chapter itself; they are prompts for close reading, not claims about its only possible meaning.

The opening movement

Verse 1 begins: ““You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem.” Ask what situation, voice, image, or argument this opening establishes for everything that follows.

The closing movement

Verse 17 closes: “that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.” Compare the ending with the opening and note what changed, resolved, intensified, or remained open.

Vocabulary worth tracing

Recurring or prominent content words include will, days, iniquity, bread, yourself, siege. Follow where each word appears and whether its meaning shifts with the speaker or setting.

COMMON QUESTIONS

About Ezekiel 4

Which Bible translation is shown here?+

This page reproduces the World English Bible Protestant edition (WEBP), a modern-English translation dedicated to the public domain.

How should I cite a specific verse?+

Use the book, chapter, and verse—for example, Ezekiel 4:1—and name the World English Bible if the wording matters. Each verse number above is a direct anchor link.

Does the chapter number define the complete literary unit?+

Not always. Chapter and verse numbers were added for navigation. Check the paragraphs, scenes, poetic stanzas, or argument before and after this chapter.

A SMALL NEXT STEP

You do not have to have everything figured out.

Begin with one honest question, one passage read carefully, and one faithful next step.

Start with prayer