Ezekiel 5
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 5
1 Son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor to shave your head and your beard. Then take scales and divide the hair you have cut off. 2 When the days of the siege come to an end, burn one-third of the hair inside the city. Take another third and cut it up with the sword throughout the city. Scatter the last third to the wind while I pursue it with the sword. 3 In addition, take a few of these hairs and conceal them in a fold of your robe. 4 From these, however, take some and cast them into the fire and burn them completely. A fire will spread from there against the entire house of Israel.
5 Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem, which I have established in the midst of the nations and surrounded with foreign countries. 6 But she has rebelled against my ordinances and my statutes more wickedly than all the nations and the countries around her, rejecting my ordinances and refusing to obey my laws.
7 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Because you have been more rebellious than the nations that surround you and have not followed my statutes or respected my ordinances and have not even observed the laws of the nations that surround you, 8 therefore, thus says the Lord God: I too am coming against you, and I will execute my judgments on you for all the nations to see. 9 And because of all your abominable offenses, I will inflict punishment on you that I have never done before and the like of which I will never do again. 10 Those of you who are parents will eat your children, and children will eat their parents. I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to the winds.
11 Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all of your detestable and vile abominations, I will destroy you. I will not take pity on you or spare you. 12 One-third of you will die of pestilence or perish because of famine, one-third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and one-third I will scatter to the four winds and pursue them with the sword.
13 Then, once my anger has abated and I have vented my wrath against them, they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my jealousy. 14 I will make you a desolate waste and the object of mockery among the nations that surround you, a fate clearly evident to all those who pass by. 15 You will be an object of mockery and abuse, a frightening warning to the nations that surround you, when I execute my judgment on you in anger and fury and dreadful punishments. I, the Lord, have spoken.
16 When I loose my deadly arrows of famine against you, arrows of destruction which I will send forth to destroy you, and when I afflict you with one famine after another and cut off your supply of food, 17 I will afflict you with even more intense famine and wild beasts, and you will be left childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.
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.”
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 5:7 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac lack not
- Ezekiel 5:8 The same Hebrew expression can mean obey rules, or execute judgments, depending on the context
- Ezekiel 5:11 Some Hebrew manuscripts I will cut you down
- Ezekiel 5:15 Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Targum; Masoretic Text And it shall be
- Ezekiel 5:16 Hebrew them
- Ezekiel 5:16 Hebrew staff
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
