Ezekiel 5 — Berean Standard Bible

¹ [“]As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair. ² When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third [of the hair] inside the city; you are also 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 unleash a sword behind them. ³ But you are to take a few strands of hair and secure them in the folds of your garment. ⁴ Again, take a few of these, throw them into the fire, and burn them. From there a fire will spread to the whole house of Israel. ⁵ This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This [is] Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. ⁶ But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes worse than the countries around her. For [her people] have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’ ⁷ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You have been more insubordinate than the nations around you; you have not walked in My statutes [or] kept My ordinances, nor have you even conformed to the ordinances of the nations around you.’ ⁸ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself am against you, [Jerusalem], and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. ¹⁰ As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’ ¹¹ Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, [nor] will I spare you. ¹² A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside [your walls], and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them. ¹³ And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, in My zeal have spoken. ¹⁴ I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ So you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken. ¹⁶ When I shower you with the deadly arrows of famine [and] destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of food. ¹⁷ I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and 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.”