Ezekiel 5:1-17

YAHWEH said, “Son of man, take a sharp sword; use it like a barber’s razor and shave your head and beard. Then take scales and divide the hair into three piles. When the days of your siege are over, burn up a third in the midst of the city of Jerusalem. Take another third and chop it up with the sword around the perimeter of the tile-city. Then scatter the last third to the wind. I will pursue those who escape the city with my sword. Also keep back a few hairs and wrap them up in the folds of your cloak. And of those, take just a few hairs and throw them on the fire and burn them. That fire will spread to all the people of Israel.” Listen to what the Lord YAHWEH says: “This represents Jerusalem. I have placed her in the center of the nations, encircled by foreign countries. Yet she has rebelled more wickedly against my ways and against my laws than the gentile nations that surround her. Indeed, she has deliberately rejected my commands and not kept my laws.” Therefore, the Lord YAHWEH says, “Because you acted more wickedly than the nations around you, since you do not keep my laws or respect my commands, and since you do not respect even the moral standards of the surrounding nations, therefore, behold—I, Lord YAHWEH, declare that I am against you. And I will pass my judgment on you for all the nations to see. Because of all your loathsome practices, I am coming against you more severely than I have ever done before or will ever do again. As a result, those of you who are parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will punish you and scatter what remains of you to the winds. “For as surely as I live, I, Lord YAHWEH, declare: because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your horrible and loathsome practices, I will withdraw from you and will not even glance on you with pity or spare you. Inside Jerusalem, a third of your people will die of plague or starvation. Outside the city, a third will fall by the sword. And a third I will scatter to the winds and pursue with my sword. Then my anger will come to an end and be fully spent against them, and then my justice will have been satisfied. When I have carried out my anger against them, they will know how jealous I am for them. Afterward, they will know that I, YAHWEH, have spoken in my zeal. “Moreover, I will reduce you to a heap of ruins, an object of scorn to the surrounding nations, in the eyes of all who pass by. You will be mocked and insulted. Your downfall will be an appalling lesson to the surrounding nations. This will happen when I execute judgment on you in my furious anger and with my furious punishment. I, YAHWEH, have spoken. “I will release against them the deadly arrows of famine—arrows of destruction! Then I will make the famine even worse and cut off your food supply. I will send severe famine and wild animals against you to rob you of your children. Sickness and bloodshed will overtake you, and I will bring the sword down upon you. I, YAHWEH, have spoken.”