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.’ ”