²⁰ On that day the Lord will shave with a razor hired beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will take off the beard as well.^(A)

⁷ therefore the Lord is bringing up against it the mighty flood waters of the River, the king of Assyria and all his glory; it will rise above all its channels and overflow all its banks;

¹⁸ Mortal, King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare, yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had expended against it.^(A)

A Sword against Jerusalem

5 “And you, O mortal, take a sharp sword; use it as a barber’s razor and run it over your head and your beard; then take balances for weighing, and divide the hair.^{(A) 2} One third of the hair you shall burn in the fire inside the city when the days of the siege are completed; one third you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city;^[a] and one third you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them.^{(B) 3} Then you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the hem of your robe.^{(C) 4} From these, again, you shall take some, throw them into the fire and burn them up; from there a fire will come out against all the house of Israel.^(D)

²⁰ I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, says the Lord God.^(A)

⁶ Now I have given all these lands into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him even the wild animals of the field to serve him.^{(A) 7} All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave.^(B)

Impending Judgment on the Earth