Ezekiel 5

Modern

Literal

The Razor of Judgment

¹“As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair.

¹“ And you, son of man, take for yourself a sharp sword; the razor of a barber take it to yourself and pass it over your head and over your beard; take for yourself scales of weighing, and you shall divide the hair.

²When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also 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 unleash a sword behind them.

²A third with fire you shall burn in the midst of the city at the completion of the days of the siege; and you shall take a third and strike it with the sword around it; and a third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will unsheathe a sword after them.

³But you are to take a few strands of hair and secure them in the folds of your garment.

³And you shall take from them a few in number, and you shall bind them in your skirts.

⁴Again, take a few of these, throw them into the fire, and burn them. From there a fire will spread to the whole house of Israel.

⁴And some of them you shall take again and cast them into the midst of the fire, and you shall burn them in the fire; from there will go out a fire into all the house of Israel!

⁵This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.

⁵Thus says the Lord YHWH: ‘This is Jerusalem; in the midst of the nations I have set her, and all around her the countries.

⁶But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes worse than the countries around her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’

⁶And she has rebelled against My ordinances for wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are around her—for My ordinances they have refused, and My statutes, they have not walked in them!’

⁷Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You have been more insubordinate than the nations around you; you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances, nor have you even conformed^a to the ordinances of the nations around you.’

⁷Therefore, thus says the Lord YHWH: ‘Because of your turbulence above the nations that are around you, in My statutes you have not walked, and My ordinances you have not done—nor have you done’ according to the ordinances of the nations that are around you!

⁸Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.

⁸Therefore thus says the Lord YHWH: ‘Behold, I am against you—even I! And I will do in your midst judgments in the eyes of the nations;

⁹Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.

⁹and I will do among you what I have not done, and that which I will do not like it again, because of all your abominations!

¹⁰As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’

¹⁰Therefore fathers shall eat the sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute on you judgments, and I will scatter all your remnant to every wind.’

Famine, Sword, and Dispersion

¹¹Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you.

¹¹Therefore, by the life of Me—a declaration of the Lord YHWH—surely because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, My eye will not at all show pity, and I also will not have pity, and I—I will diminish you!

¹²A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

¹²A third of you—they will die by pestilence and they will be consumed by famine in your midst; and a third will fall by the sword all around you; and a third I will scatter to all the winds and I will unsheath a sword after them!

¹³And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, in My zeal have spoken.

¹³And My nose shall be completed and My fury I will cause to rest upon them, and I will be avenged; and they will know that I, YHWH, have spoken it in My zeal, in my completing My fury against them!

¹⁴I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

¹⁴And I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are around you, before the eyes of everyone passing by.

¹⁵So you will be^a a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken.

¹⁵And you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations that are around you, in my making against you judgments in anger and in fury and with rebukes of fury—I, YHWH, have spoken—

¹⁶When I shower you^a with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply^b of food.

¹⁶in my sending against them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you; and the famine I am adding upon you, and I will cut off unto you the staff of bread.

¹⁷I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

¹⁷And I will send against you famine and evil beasts, and they will bereave you; and pestilence and blood will pass through you, and the sword I will bring upon you!—I, YHWH, have spoken.”