God’s Razor of Judgment

5 “Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor^(A) to shave^(B) your head and your beard.^(C) Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair. ² When the days of your siege come to an end, burn^(D) a third^(E) of the hair inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind.^(F) For I will pursue them with drawn sword.^{(G) 3} But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment.^{(H) 4} Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire^(I) and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to all Israel.

⁵ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.^{(J) 6} Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees.^(K)

⁷ “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even^[a] conformed to the standards of the nations around you.^(L)

⁸ “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations.^{(M) 9} Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.^{(N) 10} Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents.^(O) I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds.^{(P) 11} Therefore as surely as I live,^(Q) declares the Sovereign^(R) Lord, because you have defiled my sanctuary^(S) with all your vile images^(T) and detestable practices,^(U) I myself will shave you; I will not look on you with pity or spare you.^{(V) 12} A third of your people will die of the plague or perish by famine inside you; a third will fall by the sword outside your walls; and a third I will scatter to the winds^(W) and pursue with drawn sword.^(X)

¹³ “Then my anger will cease and my wrath^(Y) against them will subside, and I will be avenged.^(Z) And when I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal.^(AA)

¹⁴ “I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by.^{(AB) 15} You will be a reproach^(AC) and a taunt, a warning^(AD) and an object of horror to the nations around you when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke.^(AE) I the Lord have spoken.^{(AF) 16} When I shoot at you with my deadly and destructive arrows of famine, I will shoot to destroy you. I will bring more and more famine upon you and cut off your supply of food.^{(AG) 17} I will send famine and wild beasts^(AH) against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed^(AI) will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I the Lord have spoken.^(AJ)”

²² “Therefore, Oholibah, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will stir up your lovers^(A) against you, those you turned away from in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side^(B)— ²³ the Babylonians^(C) and all the Chaldeans,^(D) the men of Pekod^(E) and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, handsome young men, all of them governors and commanders, chariot officers and men of high rank, all mounted on horses.^{(F) 24} They will come against you with weapons,^[a] chariots and wagons^(G) and with a throng of people; they will take up positions against you on every side with large and small shields and with helmets. I will turn you over to them for punishment,^(H) and they will punish you according to their standards. ²⁵ I will direct my jealous anger^(I) against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will cut off your noses and your ears, and those of you who are left will fall by the sword. They will take away your sons and daughters,^(J) and those of you who are left will be consumed by fire.^{(K) 26} They will also strip^(L) you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry.^{(M) 27} So I will put a stop^(N) to the lewdness and prostitution you began in Egypt. You will not look on these things with longing or remember Egypt anymore.

²⁸ “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to deliver you into the hands^(O) of those you hate, to those you turned away from in disgust. ²⁹ They will deal with you in hatred and take away everything you have worked for. They will leave you stark naked,^(P) and the shame of your prostitution will be exposed.^(Q) Your lewdness^(R) and promiscuity^{(S) 30} have brought this on you, because you lusted after the nations and defiled yourself with their idols.^{(T) 31} You have gone the way of your sister; so I will put her cup^(U) into your hand.^(V)

³² “This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord.^(AA)

³⁵ “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Since you have forgotten^(AB) me and turned your back on me,^(AC) you must bear^(AD) the consequences of your lewdness and prostitution.”

³⁶ The Lord said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then confront^(AE) them with their detestable practices,^{(AF) 37} for they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols; they even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to me, as food for them.^{(AG) 38} They have also done this to me: At that same time they defiled my sanctuary^(AH) and desecrated my Sabbaths.^{(AI) 39} On the very day they sacrificed their children to their idols, they entered my sanctuary and desecrated^(AJ) it. That is what they did in my house.^(AK)

⁴⁰ “They even sent messengers for men who came from far away,^(AL) and when they arrived you bathed yourself for them, applied eye makeup^(AM) and put on your jewelry.^{(AN) 41} You sat on an elegant couch,^(AO) with a table^(AP) spread before it on which you had placed the incense^(AQ) and olive oil that belonged to me.^(AR)

⁴² “The noise of a carefree^(AS) crowd was around her; drunkards^(AT) were brought from the desert along with men from the rabble, and they put bracelets^(AU) on the wrists of the woman and her sister and beautiful crowns on their heads.^{(AV) 43} Then I said about the one worn out by adultery, ‘Now let them use her as a prostitute,^(AW) for that is all she is.’ ⁴⁴ And they slept with her. As men sleep with a prostitute, so they slept with those lewd women, Oholah and Oholibah.