Ezekiel 5

1 “As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair.

“And you, son of man, take a sharp weapon for yourself, take the barber’s razor for yourself, and you have caused [it] to pass over your head, and over your beard, and you have taken weighing scales for yourself, and apportioned them.

2 When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them.

You burn a third part with fire in the midst of the city, at the fullness of the days of the siege; and you have taken the third part, you strike with a weapon around it; and the third part you scatter to the wind, and I draw out a weapon after them.

3 But you are to take a few strands of hair and secure them in the folds of your garment.

And you have taken there a few in number—and have bound them in your skirts;

4 Again, take a few of these, throw them into the fire, and burn them. From there a fire will spread to the whole house of Israel.

and you take of them again, and have cast them into the midst of the fire, and have burned them in the fire—out of it comes forth a fire to all the house of Israel.”

5 This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.

Thus said Lord YHWH: “This [is] Jerusalem, I have set her in the midst of the nations, And the lands [are] around her.

6 But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes worse than the countries around her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’

And she changes My judgments into wickedness more than the nations, And My statutes more than the lands that [are] around her, For they have kicked against My judgments, And My statutes—they have not walked in them.”

7 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You have been more insubordinate than the nations around you; you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances, nor have you even conformed to the ordinances of the nations around you.’

Therefore, thus said Lord YHWH: “Because of your multiplying above the nations that [are] around you, You have not walked in My statutes, And you have not done My judgments, According to the judgments of the nations that [are] around you, you have not done.”

8 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.

Therefore, thus said Lord YHWH: “Behold, I [am] against you, even I, And I have done judgments in your midst, Before the eyes of the nations.

9 Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.

And I have done in you that which I have not done, And the like of which I do not do again, Because of all your abominations.

10 As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’

Therefore fathers eat sons in your midst, And sons eat their fathers, And I have done judgments in you, And have scattered all your remnant to every wind.

11 Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you.

Therefore, [as] I live,” a declaration of Lord YHWH, “Because you have defiled My sanctuary With all your detestable things, And with all your abominations, Therefore I also diminish you, And My eye does not pity, and I do not spare.

12 A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

Your third part dies by pestilence, And are consumed by famine in your midst, And the third part fall by sword around you, And the third part I scatter to every wind, And I draw out a sword after them.

13 And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, in My zeal have spoken.

And My anger has been completed, And I have caused My fury to rest on them, And I have been comforted, And they have known that I, YHWH, have spoken in My zeal, In My completing My fury on them.

14 I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

And I give you for a ruin, And for a reproach among nations that [are] around you, Before the eyes of everyone passing by.

15 So you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken.

And it has been a reproach and a reviling, An instruction and an astonishment, To nations that [are] around you, In My doing judgments in you, In anger and fury, and in furious reproofs, I, YHWH, have spoken.

16 When I shower you with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of food.

In My sending the evil arrows of famine among them, That have been for destruction, That I send to destroy you, And I am adding famine on you, And I have broken your staff of bread.

17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

And I have sent famine and evil beasts on you, And they have bereaved you, And pestilence and blood pass over on you, And I bring a sword in against you, I, YHWH, have spoken!”