¹ This is what the Lord said to me: Go and get yourself a linen band and put it round you and do not put it in water.

¹¹ For as a band goes tightly round a man's body, so I made all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah tightly united to me; so that they might be a people for me and a name and a praise and a glory: but they would not give ear.

¹ This is what the Lord has said: Go and get for money a potter's bottle made of earth, and take with you some of the responsible men of the people and of the priests;

² This is what the Lord has said to me: Make for yourself bands and yokes and put them on your neck;

¹ And you, son of man, take a back and put it before you and on it make a picture of a town, even Jerusalem.

² And make an attack on it, shutting it in, building strong places against it, and making high an earthwork against it; and put up tents against it, placing engines all round it for smashing down its walls.

³ And take a flat iron plate, and put it for a wall of iron between you and the town: and let your face be turned to it, and it will be shut in and you will make an attack on it. This will be a sign to the children of Israel.

⁴ Then, stretching yourself out on your left side, take the sin of the children of Israel on yourself: for as long as you are stretched out, so long will the sin of the children of Israel be on you.

⁵ For I have had the years of their sin measured for you by a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: and you will take on yourself the sin of the children of Israel.

¹ In times past the word of God came to our fathers through the prophets, in different parts and in different ways;