Ezekiel 5

Jerusalem Will Be Destroyed

1 “And you a O son of man, take a b sharp sword. Use it as c a barber’s razor and d pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair. 2  e A third part you shall burn in the fire f in the midst of the city g when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. h And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and i I will unsheathe the sword after them. 3  j And you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe. 4  k And of these again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.

5 “Thus says the Lord  God: l This is Jerusalem. I have set her m in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. 6 And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness n more than the nations, and against my statutes more than o the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. 7 Therefore thus says the Lord  God: Because you are p more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, q and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules r and have not ▼
▼ Some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac lack  not
 even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, 8 therefore thus says the Lord  God: Behold, I, even I t am against you. u And I will execute judgments ▼
▼ The same Hebrew expression can mean obey rules, or  execute judgments, depending on the context
 in your midst w in the sight of the nations. 9 And because of all your abominations I will do with you x what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. 10 Therefore y fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. z And I will execute judgments on you, aa and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds. 11 Therefore ab as I live, declares the Lord  God, surely ac because you have defiled my sanctuary ad with all your detestable things and with all your ae abominations af therefore I will withdraw. ▼
▼ Some Hebrew manuscripts  I will cut you down
 ah My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. 12  ai A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; aj a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; ak and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them.

13  al “Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that am I am the  Lord—that I have spoken in my jealousy— an when I spend my fury upon them. 14 Moreover, I will make you ao a desolation and ap an object of reproach among aq the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. 15 You shall be ▼
▼ Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Targum; Masoretic Text And it shall be
 a reproach and a taunt, a warning as and a horror, to at the nations all around you, au when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and av with furious rebukes—I am the  Lord; I have spoken— 16 when I send against you ▼
▼ Hebrew them
 ax the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon ay you and break your supply ▼
▼ Hebrew staff
 of bread. 17 I will send famine and ba wild beasts against you, bb and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and bc blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the  Lord; I have spoken.”

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