A Sword Against Jerusalem
1 “And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor,and passitover your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide thehair.
2 You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst ofthe city, whenthe days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike arounditwith the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword afterthem.
3 You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of yourgarment.
4 Then take some of them again andthrow them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.
5 “Thus says the LordGod: ‘ThisisJerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her.
6 She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries thatareall around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.’
7 Therefore thus says the LordGod: ‘Because you have multiplieddisobediencemore than the nations thatareall around you, have not walked in My statutesnor kept My judgments, nor even done according to the judgments of the nations thatareall around you’—
8 therefore thus says the LordGod: ‘Indeed I, even I,amagainst you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations.
9 And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations.
10 Therefore fathersshall eattheirsons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I willscatter to all the winds.
11 ‘Therefore,asI live,’ says the LordGod, ‘surely, because you havedefiled My sanctuary with all yourdetestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminishyou;My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity.
12 One-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; andI will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword afterthem.
13 ‘Thus shall My angerbe spent, and I willcause My fury to rest upon them,and I will be avenged;and they shall know that I, theLord, have spokenitin My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them.
14 MoreoverI will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations thatareall around you, in the sight of all who pass by.
15 ‘So it shall be areproach, a taunt, alesson, and an astonishment to the nations thatareall around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and infurious rebukes. I, theLord, have spoken.
16 When Isend against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off yoursupply of bread.
17 So I will send against you famine andwild beasts, and they will bereave you.Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, theLord, have spoken.’ ”