Ezekiel 5

International Children’s Bible

Ezekiel Cuts His Hair

5 “Now, human being, take a sharp sword. Use it like a barber’s razor to shave your head and beard. Then take scales and weigh and divide the hair. ² Burn one-third with fire when the days of the attack on Jerusalem are over. Burn it in the middle of the city. Then take one-third and cut it up with the knife all around the city. And scatter one-third to the wind. This is how I will chase them with a sword. ³ Also take a few of these hairs and tie them in the folds of your clothes. ⁴ Take a few more and throw them into the fire and burn them up. From there a fire will spread to all the people of Israel.

⁵ “This is what the Lord says: This is Jerusalem. I have put her at the center of the nations with countries all around her. ⁶ But she has refused to obey my laws. She has been more evil than the nations. She has refused to obey my rules even more than those around her. The people of Jerusalem have rejected my laws and have not lived by my rules.

⁷ “So this is what the Lord God says: You caused more confusion than the nations around you. You did not follow my rules or obey my laws. You have not even obeyed the laws of the nations around you.

⁸ “So this is what the Lord God says: I myself am against you. I will punish you and the nations will watch. ⁹ I will do things among you that I have not done before. I will never do anything like them again. I will do them because you do the things I hate. ¹⁰ So fathers among you will eat their children. And children will eat their fathers. I will punish you. I will scatter to the winds all who are left alive. ¹¹ So the Lord God says: As surely as I live, you have made my Temple unclean. You have done it with all your evil idols and the hated things you do. Because of this I will cut you off. I will have no pity. I will show no mercy. ¹² A third of you will die by disease or be destroyed by hunger inside your walls. A third will fall dead by the sword outside your walls. And a third I will scatter in every direction. I will chase them with a sword. ¹³ Then my anger will come to an end. I will use it up against them. Then I will be satisfied. Then they will know that I, the Lord God, have spoken. After I have carried out my anger against them, they will know how strongly I felt.

¹⁴ “I will make you a ruin. And I will make you a shame among the nations around you. All who pass by will see this. ¹⁵ Then you will be shamed by the nations around you. They will make fun of you. You will be a warning to them. They will be terrified. This will happen when I punish you in my great anger. I, the Lord, have spoken. ¹⁶ I will send a time of hunger to destroy you. Then I will make your hunger get even worse. I will cut off your supply of food. ¹⁷ I will send a time of hunger and wild animals against you. They will kill your children. Disease and death will sweep through your people. I will bring the sword against you to kill you. I, the Lord, have spoken.”