1‘Son of man, get a sharp sword. Use it as a barber’s razor. Shave your head and beard with it. Then get a set of scales and weigh the hair. Separate it into three piles.2Burn a third of the hair inside the city. Do this when you stop attacking the model of Jerusalem. Next, get another third of the hair. Strike it with a sword all around the city. Then scatter the last third to the winds. That is because I will chase the people with a sword that is ready to strike them down.3But save a few hairs. Tuck them away in the clothes you are wearing.4Next, get a few more hairs. Throw them into the fire. Burn them up. The fire will spread to all the people of Israel.’5The LORD and King says, ‘What you do with the hair stands for what I will do with Jerusalem’s people. I have placed that city in the centre of the nations. Countries are all around it.6But its people are sinful. They have refused to obey my laws and rules. They have turned their backs on my laws. They have not followed my rules. These people are worse than the nations and countries around them.’7The LORD and King continues, ‘You people have been worse than the nations around you. You have not lived by my rules or kept my laws. You have not even lived up to the standards of the nations around you.’8The LORD and King continues, ‘Jerusalem, I myself am against you. I will punish you in the sight of the nations.9I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. That is because you worship statues of gods. I hate them.10So parents will eat their own children inside the city. And children will eat their parents. I will punish you. And I will scatter to the winds anyone who is left alive.11You have made my temple “unclean”. You have set up statues of all your evil gods. You have done other things I hate. So I will cut you off just like Ezekiel cut off his hair. I will not spare you or feel sorry for you. And that is just as sure as I am alive,’ announces the LORD and King.12A third of your people will die of the plague inside your walls. Or they will die of hunger there. Another third will be killed by swords outside your walls. And I will scatter the last third of your people to the winds. I will chase them with a sword that is ready to strike them down.13‘Then I will not be angry anymore. My great anger against them will die down. And I will be satisfied. Then they will know that I have spoken with strong feelings. And my great anger towards them will come to an end. I am the LORD.14‘I will destroy you. I will bring shame on you in the sight of the nations around you. All those who pass by will see it.15You will be put to shame. The nations will make fun of you. You will serve as a warning to others. They will be shocked when they see you. So I will punish you because I am very angry with you. You will feel the sting of my warning. I have spoken. I am the LORD.16I will shoot at you with my deadly, destroying arrows of hunger. I will shoot to kill. I will bring more and more hunger on you. I will cut off your food supply.17I will send hunger and wild animals against you. They will destroy all your children. Plague and murder will sweep over you. And I will send swords to kill you. I have spoken. I am the LORD.’
Ezekiel 5
English Standard Version
Jerusalem Will Be Destroyed
1“And you, O son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it as a barber’s razor and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair. (Le 21:5; Ps 57:4; Isa 7:20; Isa 49:2; Eze 1:3; Eze 2:1; Eze 44:20)2A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them. (Jer 9:16; Eze 4:1; Eze 4:8; Eze 5:5; Eze 5:10; Eze 5:12; Eze 12:14)3And you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe. (Jer 40:6; Jer 52:16)4And of these again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will come out into all the house of Israel. (Jer 42:18; Jer 44:14)5“Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. (Eze 4:1; Eze 5:2; Eze 38:12)6And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. (Eze 5:5; Eze 16:47)7Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not[1] even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, (Ps 2:1; Ps 46:6; Eze 11:12; Eze 16:47)8therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments[2] in your midst in the sight of the nations. (Eze 11:9; Eze 13:8; Eze 16:41; Eze 22:16; Eze 23:10)9And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. (2Ki 21:12; La 1:12; Da 9:12)10Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds. (De 28:64; Jer 9:16; Jer 15:4; Jer 19:9; Eze 5:2; Eze 5:8; Eze 12:14; Eze 17:21; Eze 22:15; Eze 36:19; Zec 2:6)11Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord God, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will withdraw.[3] My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. (2Ch 36:14; Jer 7:30; Jer 21:7; Eze 7:4; Eze 7:9; Eze 7:20; Eze 8:3; Eze 8:5; Eze 8:18; Eze 9:5; Eze 9:10; Eze 11:18; Eze 11:21; Eze 16:27; Eze 16:48; Eze 23:39)12A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them. (Jer 15:2; Eze 5:2; Eze 6:11)13“Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the Lord—that I have spoken in my jealousy—when I spend my fury upon them. (La 4:11; Eze 6:12; Eze 7:8; Eze 20:8; Eze 20:21; Eze 36:5; Eze 38:19; Eze 39:25)14Moreover, I will make you a desolation and an object of reproach among the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. (Ne 2:17; Ps 79:4; Jer 22:5; Jer 24:9; Eze 5:5; Eze 6:6; Eze 22:4)15You shall be[4] a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations all around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and with furious rebukes—I am the Lord; I have spoken— (De 28:37; Eze 5:14; Eze 14:8; Eze 14:21; Eze 25:17)16when I send against you[5] the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon you and break your supply[6] of bread. (De 32:23; Eze 4:16)17I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord; I have spoken.” (De 32:24; 2Ki 17:25; Eze 14:15; Eze 33:27; Eze 34:25; Eze 36:12; Eze 38:22)