EZEKIEL DRAMATIZES JERUSALEM’S FALL

5 “Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword,t use it as you would a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair. 2 You are to burn a third of it in the city when the days of the siege have ended;u you are to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind, for I will draw a sword to chase after them. 3 But you are to take a few strands from the hair and secure them in the folds of your robe.v 4 Take some more of them, throw them into the fire, and burn them in it.w A fire will spread from it to the whole house of Israel.

5 “This is what the Lord God says: I have set this Jerusalem in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. 6 She has rebelled against my ordinances with more wickedness than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that surround her. For her people have rejected my ordinances and have not walked in my statutes.

7 “Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Because you have been more insubordinate than the nations around youx—you have not walked in my statutes or kept my ordinances; you have not even kept the ordinances of the nations around you—8 therefore, this is what the Lord God says: See, I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments within you in the sight of the nations. 9 Because of all your detestable practices, I will do to you what I have never done before and what I will never do again.a 10 As a result, fathers will eat their sonsb within Jerusalem,A and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your survivors to every direction of the wind.

11 “Therefore, as I live”—this is the declaration of the Lord God—“I will withdraw and show you no pity, because you have defiled my sanctuaryc with all your abhorrent acts and detestable practices.d Yes, I will not spare you. 12 A third of your people will die by plague and be consumed by famine within you;e a third will fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter a third to every direction of the wind, and I will draw a sword to chase after them.f 13 When my anger is spent and I have vented my wrath on them, I will be appeased.g Then after I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my jealousy.h

14 “I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by. 15 So youB will be a disgrace and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger,i wrath, and furious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken. 16 When I shoot deadly arrows of famine at them, arrows for destruction that I will send to destroy you, inhabitants of Jerusalem, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of bread. 17 I will send famine and dangerous animals against you. They will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.”j