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“As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor.[a] Shave off some of the hair from your head and your beard.[b] Then take scales and divide up the hair you cut off. Burn a third of it in the fire inside the city when the days of your siege are completed. Take a third and slash it with a sword all around the city. Scatter a third to the wind, and I will unleash a sword behind them. But take a few strands of hair[c] from those and tie them in the ends of your garment.[d] Again, take more of them and throw them into the fire,[e] and burn them up. From there a fire will spread to all the house of Israel.

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 5:1 tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.
  2. Ezekiel 5:1 tn Heb, “pass (it) over your head and your beard.”
  3. Ezekiel 5:3 tn Heb “from there a few in number.” The word “strands” has been supplied in the translation for clarification.
  4. Ezekiel 5:3 sn Objects could be carried in the end of a garment (Hag 2:12).
  5. Ezekiel 5:4 tn Heb “into the midst of” (so KJV, ASV). This phrase has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.

And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.

Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.

Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts.

Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.

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