Jerusalem’s Desolation Foretold

1 “As for you, son of man, take a asharp sword; take and 1use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take bscales for weighing and divide 2the hair.

2 “One third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the adays of the siege are completed. Then you shall take one third and strike it with the sword all around 1the city, and one third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will bunsheathe a sword behind them.

3 “Take also a few in number from 1them and bind them in the edges of your robes.

4 “Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will 1spread to all the house of Israel.

5 “Thus says the Lord 1God, ‘This is aJerusalem; I have set her at the bcenter of the nations, with lands around her.

6 ‘But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes amore than the lands which surround her; for they have brejected My ordinances and have not walked 1in My statutes.’

7 “Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Because you have amore turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,’

8 therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I, even I, am aagainst you, and I will bexecute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.

9 ‘And because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have anot done, and the like of which I will never do again.

10 ‘Therefore, afathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and bscatter all your remnant to every wind.

11 ‘So as I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have adefiled My sanctuary with all your bdetestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw, and My eye will have no pity and I will not spare.

12 ‘One third of you will die by aplague or be consumed by famine among you, one third will fall by the sword around you, and one third I will bscatter to every wind, and I will cunsheathe a sword behind them.

13 ‘Thus My anger will be spent and I will 1satisfy My wrath on them, and I will be 2aappeased; then they will know that I, the Lord, have bspoken in My zeal when I have spent My wrath upon them.

14 ‘Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a areproach among the nations which surround you, in the sight of all who pass by.

15 ‘So 1it will be a reproach, a reviling, a awarning and an object of horror to the nations who surround you when I bexecute judgments against you in anger, wrath and raging rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken.

16 ‘When I send against them the 1deadly arrows of famine which 2were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break the staff of bread.

17 ‘Moreover, aI will send on you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you of children; bplague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”

Chapter 6

Idolatrous Worship Denounced

1 And the word of the Lord came to me saying,

2 “Son of man, set your face toward the amountains of Israel, and prophesy against them

3 and say, ‘Mountains of Israel, listen to the word of the Lord 1God! Thus says the Lord 1God to the mountains, the hills, the ravines and the valleys: “Behold, I Myself am going to bring a sword on you, and aI will destroy your high places.

4 “So your aaltars will become desolate and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will make your slain fall in front of your idols.

5 “I will also lay the dead bodies of the sons of Israel in front of their idols; and I will scatter your abones around your altars.

6 “In all your dwellings, acities will become waste and the high places will be desolate, that your altars may become waste and 1desolate, your bidols may be broken and brought to an end, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be blotted out.

7 “The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.

8 “However, I will leave a aremnant, for you will have those who bescaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the countries.

9 “Then those of you who escape will aremember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have 1bbeen hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will cloathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations.

10 “Then they will know that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain 1that I would inflict this disaster on them.” ’

11 “Thus says the Lord 1God, ‘Clap your hand, astamp your foot and say, “bAlas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, which will fall by csword, famine and plague!

12 “He who is afar off will die by the plague, and he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged will die by the famine. Thus will I bspend My wrath on them.

13 “Then you will know that I am the Lord, when their aslain are among their idols around their altars, on bevery high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree and under every leafy oak—the places where they offered soothing aroma to all their idols.

14 “So throughout all their habitations I will astretch out My hand against them and make the land more desolate and waste than the wilderness toward Diblah; thus they will know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”