Ezekiel 5

English Standard Version

Jerusalem Will Be Destroyed

5 “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^[a] 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, ^(S)am against you. ^(T)And I will execute judgments^[b] in your midst ^(U)in the sight of the nations. ⁹ And because of all your abominations I will do with you ^(V)what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. ¹⁰ Therefore ^(W)fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. ^(X)And I will execute judgments on you, ^(Y)and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds. ¹¹ Therefore, ^(Z)as I live, declares the Lord God, surely, ^(AA)because you have defiled my sanctuary ^(AB)with all your detestable things and with all your ^(AC)abominations, ^(AD)therefore I will withdraw.^{[c] (AE)}My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. ^12 (AF)A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; ^(AG)a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; ^(AH)and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them.

^13 (AI)“Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that ^(AJ)I am the Lord—that I have spoken in my jealousy—^(AK)when I spend my fury upon them. ¹⁴ Moreover, I will make you ^(AL)a desolation and ^(AM)an object of reproach among ^(AN)the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ You shall be^[d] a reproach and a taunt, a warning ^(AO)and a horror, to ^(AP)the nations all around you, ^(AQ)when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and ^(AR)with furious rebukes—I am the Lord; I have spoken— ¹⁶ when I send against you^{[e] (AS)}the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon ^(AT)you and break your supply^[f] of bread. ¹⁷ I will send famine and ^(AU)wild beasts against you, ^(AV)and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and ^(AW)blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord; I have spoken.”