1 »As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword. Take and use it as a barber's razor to shave your head and beard. Then take scales for weighing and divide the hair.

2 »You should burn one-third of the hair in the fire at the center of the city when the siege is over. Take one third and strike it with the sword all around the city. The remaining one third you shall scatter to the wind. I will unsheathe a sword behind them.

3 »Take also a few strands of hair from them and bind them in the edges of your robes.

4 »Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire. Fire will spread from there to all the house of Israel.

5 »This is what the Lord Jehovah says: This is Jerusalem. I have set her at the center of the nations with countries all around her.

6 »She has rebelled against my ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against my statutes more than the lands that surround her. My people have rejected my ordinances and have not walked in my statutes.

7 »Therefore, Jehovah says: ‘You have more turmoil than the nations that surround you. You have not walked in my statutes, nor observed my ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations that surround you.’

8 »Therefore, the Lord Jehovah says: ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you! I will execute judgments against you in the sight of the nations.

9 ‘»Because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have not done before, and the like of which I will never do again.

10 ‘»Fathers will eat their sons among you and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter your entire remnant to every wind.’«

11 ‘»As I live, declares the Lord Jehovah,’ ‘because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations I will withdraw, and my eye will have no pity and I will not spare you.

12 ‘»One third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine! One third will fall by the sword! One third I will scatter to every wind! I will unsheathe a sword behind them war will follow them.

13 ‘»I will unleash my anger. I will use my fury against you, and I will get revenge. When my fury is unleashed against you, you will know that I, Jehovah, spoke to you with all my zeal.

14 ‘»I will turn you into a wasteland and an object of ridicule among the nations around you and in the presence of everyone who passes by you.

15 ‘»The nations that are around you will ridicule you and laugh at you. When I punish you because of my anger, fury, and fierce revenge, you will become something ridiculed and something horrible. I, Jehovah, have spoken.

16 ‘»When I shoot my destructive arrows of famine at you, I will shoot to kill you. I will bring more and more famine into your land. I will cut off your food supply.

17 ‘»I will send famine and wild animals against you. They will rob you of your children. I will send plagues, violence, and wars to kill you. I, Jehovah, have spoken!’«