Ezekiel 5:1-9

New International Reader's Version

God’s Judgment Will Be Like a Barber’s Razor

5 “Son of man, get a sharp sword. Use it as a barber’s razor. Shave your head and beard with it. Then get a set of scales and weigh the hair. Separate it into three piles. ² Burn up a third of the hair inside the city. Do this when you stop attacking the model of Jerusalem. Next, get another third of the hair. Strike it with a sword all around the city. Then scatter the last third to the winds. That is because I will chase the people with a sword that is ready to strike them down. ³ But save a few hairs. Tuck them away in the clothes you are wearing. ⁴ Next, get a few more hairs. Throw them into the fire. Burn them up. The fire will spread to all the people of Israel.”

⁵ The Lord and King says, “What you do with the hair stands for what I will do with Jerusalem’s people. I have placed that city in the center of the nations. Countries are all around it. ⁶ But its people are sinful. They have refused to obey my laws and rules. They have turned their backs on my laws. They have not followed my rules. These people are worse than the nations and countries around them.”

⁷ The Lord and King continues, “You people have been worse than the nations around you. You have not lived by my rules or kept my laws. You have not even lived up to the standards of the nations around you.”

⁸ The Lord and King continues, “Jerusalem, I myself am against you. I will punish you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. That is because you worship statues of gods. I hate them.