Dual Panel1AND YOU, son of man [Ezekiel], take a sharp sword and use it as a barber's razor and shave your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair into three parts.
2You shall burn one part with fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and you shall take a second part and strike with the sword round about it; and a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.
3You shall also take from these a small number of hairs and bind them in the skirts of your robe.
4And of these again take some hairs and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire; from there a fire shall come forth into all the house of Israel.
5Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem; in the center of the nations I have set her, and countries are round about her.
6And she has changed {and} rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the [heathen] nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are round about her; for [Israel] rejected My ordinances, and as for My statutes, they have not walked in them.
7Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you were more turbulent {and} raged [against Me] more than the nations that are round about you and have not walked in My statutes, neither have kept My ordinances, nor have done according to the ordinances [concerning] the nations that are round about you;
8Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments in the midst of you in the sight of the nations.
9And because of all your abominations, I will do in you that which I have not done and the like of which I will never do again.
10Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on you and all who are left of you I will scatter to all the winds.
11Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, surely because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore will I also diminish you {and} withdraw My eye that it shall not spare you. And I also will have no pity.
12And a third of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed by famine in the midst of you; a third shall fall by the sword round about you; and I will scatter a third to all the winds and will draw out a sword after them.
13Thus shall My anger be spent and I will cause My wrath toward them to rest and I will be eased {and} comforted. And they shall know, understand, {and} realize that I the Lord have spoken in My zeal, when I have accomplished My wrath upon them.
14Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are round about you and in the sight of all who pass by.
15So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror {and} an astonishment to the [heathen] nations around you when I shall execute judgments upon you in anger and in wrath and in furious chastisements {and} rebukes--I the Lord have spoken it.
16When I shall loose against them the evil arrows of hunger that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, then I will increase the famine upon you and will break your staff of bread.
17And I will send upon you hunger and wild beasts, and they shall bereave you [of your loved ones]; and pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I the Lord have spoken it.