Ezekiel 5

A Sword Against Jerusalem

5“And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, ^aand pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. ^2bYou shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of ^cthe city, when ^dthe days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after ^ethem. ^3fYou shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment. ⁴Then take some of them again and ^gthrow them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.

⁵“Thus says the Lord God: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her. ⁶She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.’ ⁷Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have ¹multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes ^hnor kept My judgments, ²nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you’—⁸therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. ⁹ⁱAnd I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations. ¹⁰Therefore fathers ^jshall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will ^kscatter to all the winds.

¹¹‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have ^ldefiled My sanctuary with all your ^mdetestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; ⁿMy eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity. ^12oOne-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; and ^pI will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after ^qthem.

¹³‘Thus shall My anger ^rbe spent, and I will ^scause My fury to rest upon them, ^tand I will be avenged; ^uand they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them. ¹⁴Moreover ^vI will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

¹⁵‘So ³it shall be a ^wreproach, a taunt, a ^xlesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in ^yfurious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken. ¹⁶When I ^zsend against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your ^asupply of bread. ¹⁷So I will send against you famine and ^bwild beasts, and they will bereave you. ^cPestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”