Ezekiel 5
Common English Bible
5 You, human one, take a sharp sword. Use it like a razor and shave your head and beard. Then use scales to divide the hair. 2 At the end of the siege, burn one-third of it in the city. Strike another third with the sword left and right. Then scatter one-third to the wind and let loose[a] the sword after it. 3 From that third, take a few strands and hide them in your garment. 4 From that hair, take yet another batch and throw it into the fire and burn it up. From there, fire will spread to the whole house of Israel.
5 The Lord God proclaims: This is Jerusalem! I have set her in the middle of the nations and surrounding countries. 6 But she rebelled against my case laws and my regulations with greater treachery than these nations and surrounding countries, who also rejected my case laws and didn’t follow my regulations. 7 Therefore, the Lord God proclaims: You have become more turbulent than these nations around you because you haven’t obeyed my regulations or followed my case laws. You haven’t even followed the case laws of the nations around you! 8 So now the Lord God proclaims: I myself am now against you! I will impose the case law penalties on you in the sight of the nations. 9 Because of you, I will do what I’ve never done before and will never do again—all because of your detestable practices. 10 Therefore, parents among you will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will impose penalties from case laws on you and scatter all that is left of you to the winds. 11 Therefore, as surely as I live, this is what the Lord God says: Because you made my sanctuary unclean with all your disgusting practices and detestable things, I myself will shave you. I will not shed a tear. You will have no compassion, even from me. 12 One-third of you will die of plague and waste away by famine among you. One-third will fall by the sword all around you. And one-third I will scatter to all the winds, letting loose a sword to pursue them. 13 My anger will be complete. I will exhaust my wrath against them and take my revenge. Then they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken against them in my zeal and consumed them in my wrath. 14 I will turn you into a desolation to the ridicule of the nations all around you, in the sight of all who pass by. 15 You will become an object of ridicule, a mockery, and a horrifying lesson to the nations all around you, when I impose penalties from case laws against you in anger, wrath, and overflowing fury. I, the Lord, have spoken. 16 When I launch my deadly arrows of famine against you, I have released them for your destruction! I will add to your famine and completely cut off your food supply. 17 I will send famine and wild animals against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will come to you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 5:2 Or I will let loose
Ezekiel 5
New King James Version
A Sword Against Jerusalem
5 “And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, (A)and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. 2 (B)You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of (C)the city, when (D)the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after (E)them. 3 (F)You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment. 4 Then take some of them again and (G)throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.
5 “Thus says the Lord God: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her. 6 She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.’ 7 Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have [a]multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes (H)nor kept My judgments, [b]nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you’— 8 therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. 9 (I)And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations. 10 Therefore fathers (J)shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will (K)scatter to all the winds.
11 ‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have (L)defiled My sanctuary with all your (M)detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; (N)My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity. 12 (O)One-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; and (P)I will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after (Q)them.
13 ‘Thus shall My anger (R)be spent, and I will (S)cause My fury to rest upon them, (T)and I will be avenged; (U)and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them. 14 Moreover (V)I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.
15 ‘So [c]it shall be a (W)reproach, a taunt, a (X)lesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in (Y)furious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken. 16 When I (Z)send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your (AA)supply of bread. 17 So I will send against you famine and (AB)wild beasts, and they will bereave you. (AC)Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 5:7 Or raged
- Ezekiel 5:7 So with MT, LXX, Tg., Vg.; many Heb. mss., Syr. but have done (cf. 11:12)
- Ezekiel 5:15 LXX, Syr., Tg., Vg. you
Ezekiel 5
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 5
1 Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it like a barber’s razor, to shave your head and your beard. Then take a balance scale for weighing and divide the hair.(A) 2 Set a third on fire within the city,[a] when the days of your siege are completed; place another third around the city and strike it with the sword; the final third scatter to the wind and then unsheathe the sword after it.(B) 3 But take a few of the hairs and tie them in the hem of your garment. 4 Take some of these and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire. Because of this, fire will flash out against the whole house of Israel.
5 Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem! I placed it in the midst of the nations, surrounded by foreign lands. 6 But it rebelled against my ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against my statutes more than the foreign lands around it; they rejected my ordinances and did not walk in my statutes.(C) 7 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Because you have caused more uproar than the nations surrounding you, not living by my statutes nor carrying out my judgments, nor even living by the ordinances of the surrounding nations; 8 therefore, thus says the Lord God: See, I am coming against you![b] I will carry out judgments among you while the nations look on.(D) 9 Because of all your abominations I will do to you what I have never done before, the like of which I will never do again. 10 Therefore, parents will eat their children in your midst, and children will eat their parents.[c] I will inflict punishments upon you and scatter all who remain to the winds.(E)
11 Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your atrocities and all your abominations, I will surely withdraw and not look upon you with pity nor spare you.(F) 12 A third of your people shall die of disease or starve to death within you; another third shall fall by the sword all around you; a third I will scatter to the winds and pursue them with the sword.(G)
13 Thus my anger will spend itself; I will vent my wrath against them until I am satisfied. Then they will know that I the Lord spoke in my passion when I spend my wrath upon them.(H) 14 I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of every passerby.(I) 15 And 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 angry wrath, with furious chastisements. I, the Lord, have spoken! 16 When I loose against you the deadly arrows of starvation that I am sending to destroy you, I will increase starvation and will break your staff of bread.(J) 17 I will send against you starvation and wild beasts who will leave you childless, while disease and bloodshed sweep through you. I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.(K)
Footnotes
- 5:2 The city: the one drawn on the tablet (4:1).
- 5:8 I am coming against you: an expression borrowed from the language of warfare in which an enemy attacked another with the sword. “You” in vv. 8–17 is Jerusalem.
- 5:10 Parents will eat their children…parents: the prophet describes the consequences of the prolonged Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587/586 B.C. See note on Lam 2:20.
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Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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