1, 2. (a) What puzzling behavior did Ezekiel engage in? (See opening picture.) (b) What did his actions foretell?

THE news about the prophet Ezekiel’s strange behavior spreads rapidly among the exiled Jews living in the land of Babylon. For a week, he had been sitting dazed and speechless among the exiles, but then, he suddenly got up and shut himself in his house. Now, with his perplexed neighbors looking on, the prophet reappears, picks up a brick, puts it in front of him, and etches it with a drawing. Then, without uttering a word, Ezekiel begins to build a miniature wall.​—Ezek. 3:10, 11, 15, 24-26; 4:1, 2.

⁴ The siege of Jerusalem. Jehovah told Ezekiel: “Take a brick and put it in front of you. . . . Lay siege to it.” (Read Ezekiel 4:1-3.) The brick represented the city of Jerusalem, while Ezekiel himself portrayed the Babylonian army as used by Jehovah. Ezekiel was also instructed to build a miniature wall and a siege rampart and to make battering rams. He was then to place these around the brick. They represented the instruments of war that Jerusalem’s enemies would use when surrounding the city and attacking it. To indicate the ironlike strength of the enemy soldiers, Ezekiel was to put “an iron griddle,” or plate, between himself and the city. He then set his “face against” the city. Those confrontational actions served as “a sign to the house of Israel” that the unthinkable was about to happen. Jehovah would use an enemy army to lay siege to Jerusalem, the chief city of God’s people, the location of God’s temple!

5. Describe how Ezekiel portrayed what would happen to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

⁵ The suffering of Jerusalem’s inhabitants. Jehovah ordered Ezekiel: “Take wheat, barley, broad beans, lentils, millet, and spelt [a type of wheat] . . . and make them into bread,” and “weigh out and eat 20 shekels of food per day.” Jehovah then explained: “I am cutting off the food supply.” (Ezek. 4:9-16) In this scene, Ezekiel no longer represented the Babylonian army; rather, he took on the role of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The prophet’s actions foretold that the coming siege would cause the food supplies in the city to dwindle. At that time, bread would be made from an odd mixture of ingredients, which indicated that the people would have to eat whatever they found. How severe would the starvation become? As if directly addressing the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Ezekiel said: “Fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers.” In the end, many would suffer because of “the deadly arrows of famine,” and the people would “waste away.”​—Ezek. 4:17; 5:10, 16.