Ezekiel Dramatizes Jerusalem’s Fall

“Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword,(A) use it as you would a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair. You are to burn up a third of it in the city when the days of the siege have ended;(B) you are to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind, for I will draw a sword to chase after them. But you are to take a few strands from the hair and secure them in the folds of your robe.(C) Take some more of them, throw them into the fire, and burn them in it.(D) A fire will spread from it to the whole house of Israel.

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“And you, son of man,[a] take for yourself[b] a sword, sharp as a barber’s razor.[c] Take it for yourself, and you must cause it to pass over your head and over your beard, and you must take for yourself a set of scales for weighing, and you must divide them.[d] A third you must burn with fire in the midst[e] of the city at the completion[f] of the days of the siege, and you must take a third, and you must strike it with the sword around it, and a third you must scatter to the wind, and I will draw a sword behind them. And you must take from these a few in number, and you must tuck them in your hem. And from them again you shall take some, and you must throw them in the middle of the fire, and you must burn them with fire; from it a fire will go out to all of the house of Israel.

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 5:1 Or “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
  2. Ezekiel 5:1 Hebrew “you”
  3. Ezekiel 5:1 Literally “the razor of the barbers”
  4. Ezekiel 5:1 That is, the hairs
  5. Ezekiel 5:2 Or “middle”
  6. Ezekiel 5:2 Literally “the completing”