Jerusalem’s Desolation Foretold

5 “As for you, son of man, take a ^(A)sharp sword; take and ^[a]use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take ^(B)scales for weighing and divide ^[b]the hair. ² A third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the ^(C)days of the siege are completed. Then you shall take a third and strike it with the sword all around ^[c]the city, and a third you shall scatter to the wind; for I will ^(D)unsheathe a sword behind them. ³ Take also a few hairs in number from ^[d]them and bind them in the hems of your robes. ⁴ Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will ^[e]spread to all the house of Israel.

⁵ “This is what the Lord ^[f]God says: ‘This is ^(E)Jerusalem; I have placed her at the ^(F)center of the nations, with lands around her. ⁶ But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes ^(G)more than the lands which surround her; for they have ^(H)rejected My ordinances and have not walked ^[g]in My statutes.’ ⁷ Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: ‘Because you have ^(I)more turmoil than the nations that surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor executed My ordinances, nor acted in accordance with the ordinances of the nations around you,’ ⁸ therefore, this is what the Lord God says: ‘Behold, I, even I, am ^(J)against you, and I will ^(K)execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ And because of all your abominations I will do among you what I have ^(L)not done, and the like of which I will never do again. ¹⁰ Therefore, ^(M)fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and ^(N)scatter all your remnant to every wind. ¹¹ Therefore as I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘Because you have ^(O)defiled My sanctuary with all your ^(P)detestable idols and with all your abominations, I definitely will also withdraw and My eye will have no pity, and I also will not spare. ¹² A third of you will die by ^(Q)plague or perish by famine among you, a third will fall by the sword around you, and a third I will ^(R)scatter to every wind, and I will ^(S)unsheathe a sword behind them.

¹³ ‘Then My anger will be spent and I will satisfy My wrath on them, and I will be ^(T)appeased; then they will know that I, the Lord, have ^(U)spoken in My zeal, when I have spent My wrath upon them. ¹⁴ Moreover, I will make you a site of ruins and a ^(V)disgrace among the nations that surround you, in the sight of everyone who passes by. ¹⁵ So ^[h]it will be a disgrace, an object of abuse, a ^(W)warning, and an object of horror to the nations that surround you when I ^(X)execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging reprimands. I, the Lord, have spoken. ¹⁶ When I send against them the ^[i]deadly arrows of famine which ^[j]were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break off your ^[k]provision of bread. ^17 (Y)I will send on you famine and vicious animals, and they will bereave you of children; ^(Z)plague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’”

²² “Therefore, Oholibah, this is what the Lord ^[a]God says: ‘Behold I am going to incite your lovers against you, from whom ^[b]you turned away in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side: ²³ the ^[c](A)Babylonians and all the ^(B)Chaldeans, ^(C)Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the ^[d](D)Assyrians with them; handsome young men, governors and officials all of them, officers and ^[e]men of renown, all of them riding on horses. ²⁴ And they will come against you with weapons, ^(E)chariots, and ^[f]wagons, and with a contingent of peoples. They will attack you on every side with shield, ^[g]buckler, and helmet; and I will commit the ^(F)judgment to them, and they will judge you according to their customs. ²⁵ I will set My ^(G)jealousy against you, so that they may deal with you in wrath. They will remove your nose and your ears; and your ^[h]survivors will fall by the sword. They will take your ^(H)sons and your daughters; and your ^[i]survivors will be consumed by the fire. ²⁶ They will also ^(I)strip you of your clothes and take away your ^(J)beautiful jewelry. ²⁷ So ^(K)I will remove from you your outrageous sin and your prostitution that you brought from the land of Egypt, so that you will not raise your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.’ ²⁸ For this is what the Lord God says: ‘Behold, I am going to hand you over to those whom you ^(L)hate, to those from whom ^[j]you turned away in disgust. ²⁹ They will ^(M)deal with you in hatred, take all your property, and leave you naked and bare. And the nakedness of your prostitution will be exposed, both your outrageous sin and your obscene practices. ³⁰ These things will be done to you because you have ^(N)adulterously pursued the nations, because you have defiled yourself with their idols. ³¹ You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will put ^(O)her cup in your hand.’ ³² This is what the Lord God says:

for I have spoken,’ declares the Lord God. ³⁵ Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: ‘Because you have ^(T)forgotten Me and ^(U)discarded Me behind your back, suffer on your own part the punishment for your outrageous sin and your obscene practices.’”

³⁶ Moreover, the Lord said to me, “Son of man, will you ^(V)judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then ^(W)declare to them their abominations. ³⁷ For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. So they have committed adultery with their idols, and even made their sons, ^(X)whom they bore to Me, pass through the fire to ^[l]them as food. ³⁸ Again, they have done this to Me: they have ^(Y)defiled My sanctuary on the same day, and have ^(Z)profaned My Sabbaths. ³⁹ For when they slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered My ^(AA)sanctuary on the same day to profane it; and behold, this is what they did within My house.

⁴⁰ “Furthermore, ^[m]they have even sent for men who come from a great distance, to whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came—for whom you bathed, ^(AB)put makeup on your eyes, and ^(AC)adorned yourselves with jewelry; ⁴¹ and you sat on a splendid ^(AD)couch with a ^(AE)table arranged in front of it on which you had set My ^(AF)incense and My ^(AG)oil. ⁴² And the sound of a ^[n](AH)carefree multitude was with her; and ^(AI)heavy drinkers were brought from the wilderness with people from the multitude of humanity. And they put ^(AJ)bracelets on ^[o]the wrists of the women and beautiful crowns on their heads.

⁴³ “Then I said concerning her who was ^(AK)worn out by adulteries, ‘^[p]Will they now commit adultery with her when she is like this?’ ^44 [q]But they went in to her as they would go in to a prostitute. This is how they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.