Ezekiel 5

CHAPTER 5

The Siege of Jerusalem

¹“Now 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 fulfilled. 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“You shall also take 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 Lord Yahweh, ‘This is ^aJerusalem; I have set her at the ^bcenter of the nations, with lands all around her.

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

⁷“Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Because you have ^amore turmoil than the nations which are all around you and have not walked in My statutes, nor done My judgments, nor done the judgments of the nations which are all around you,’

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

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

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 Lord Yahweh, ‘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 the ^aplague or be consumed by the 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 cause My wrath against them to be at rest, and I will be ^1aappeased; then they will know that I, Yahweh, have ^bspoken in My zeal when I have spent My wrath upon them.

¹⁴‘Moreover, I will make you a ¹ruin and a ^areproach among the nations which are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

¹⁵‘So ¹it will be a reproach, a reviling, a ^achastisement, and a desecration to the nations who are all around you when I ^bexecute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and wrathful reproofs. I, Yahweh, 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, Yahweh, have spoken.’”