Ezekiel 5

The divided hair

1“And you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor. Pass it over your head and beard. Then take scales and divide the hair by weight. 2When the days of the siege are complete, burn a third in the fire inside the city. Take another third and strike it with the sword around the city. Scatter the last third to the wind, and I will draw a sword after them. 3Take a few of those hairs and tie them in the folds of your garment. 4Then take some of these as well, throw them into the fire, and burn them. From it a fire will spread to the whole house of Israel.

Jerusalem and the nations

5“This is what the Lord GOD says: This is Jerusalem. I set her among the nations, with other lands around her. 6Yet she rebelled against my judgments more wickedly than the nations, and against my statutes more than the lands around her. They rejected my judgments and did not live by my statutes. 7Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: You have been more defiant than the nations around you. You have not lived by my statutes or carried out my judgments; you have not even followed the judgments of the nations around you. 8Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem. I will carry out judgments within you in the sight of the nations. 9Because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have never done and will never do again. 10So fathers among you will eat their children, and children will eat their fathers. I will carry out judgments against you and scatter all who remain of you to every wind. 11As I live, declares the Lord GOD, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and abominations, I too will cut you down. My eye will not spare you, and I will show no pity. 12A third of you will die of plague and be consumed by famine within you. A third will fall by the sword around you. A third I will scatter to every wind, and I will draw a sword after them. 13Then my anger will be spent. I will let my fury rest upon them and be satisfied. When I have spent my fury on them, they will know that I, the LORD, spoke in my jealous zeal. 14I will make you a ruin and an object of scorn among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone passing by. 15You will become an object of scorn and taunting, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I carry out judgments against you in anger, fury, and furious rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken. 16I will send deadly arrows of famine against them, arrows of destruction that I send to destroy you. I will increase the famine upon you and break your staff of bread. 17I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will bereave you. Plague and bloodshed will pass through you, and I will bring a sword upon you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”