Ezekiel 5

₁The Lord said: ‘Son of man, you must take a sharp sword and use it like a razor to shave your hair and your beard, then you must weigh the hair and divide it into 3 parts. ₂Take one 3rd of the hair and burn it in the city when the enemies have defeated the city. Then you must take another 3rd of the hair and cut it with a sword into small pieces and throw it around the city. And take the last 3rd of the hair and throw it into the wind so that it blows away. This is how I will chase the people of the city away with my sword. ₃Then you must take some of the beard and hair and tie it into your cloak. ₄Take some of the beard and hair and burn it in a fire. From there a fire will start burning and it will go to all the Israelites.’

₅This is what the Lord God says: ‘This is Jerusalem. I have put the city among the nations. It is at the most important place of all the lands around it. ₆But the people of the city have rebelled_against Me. They have not done what I wanted and what I told them to do. They have done more wrong than the other nations and people from lands around them. They disobeyed my laws and did not live as I told them to.’

₇The Lord God now says: ‘You have done worse things than the nations who live around you. You did not live as I told you to and you did not do what I want. You have done worse things than the people around you. ₈That is why I, the Lord, say: You must know that I am your enemy now. I will punish you in the city where other people can see it. ₉You have done so many bad things that I have decided to do something to you that I have never done before and that I will never do again. ₁₀It will be so bad that fathers will eat their children in the city and children will eat their fathers. I will punish the people in the city who are guilty, and if there are people who are still_alive, I will chase them and the wind will blow them away.’

₁₁The Lord God says: ‘As sure as I live, I will not forgive you. I will turn my back on you and I will not feel sorry for you because you have made my temple impure. You have done a lot of bad things there, things that I hate. ₁₂One 3rd of you will die in the city of disease or hunger, one 3rd will die around the city in war and I will chase away one 3rd of you with my sword, and you will run all over the world. ₁₃Then I will stop being angry with you. I will not punish you anymore and I will be satisfied. You will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and that I have punished you because you did not listen to Me.

₁₄I will destroy Jerusalem. It will be only a heap of stones. The nations who live around the city will laugh at it and everyone who walks past it will see what has happened to it. ₁₅When I have punished the people of Jerusalem because I am angry with them, the nations who live around them will mock them and laugh at them. The nations will become afraid of what I have done to Jerusalem. I, the Lord, have spoken.

₁₆The people will be shocked when I shoot my arrows that will kill them. My arrows are the famine that will kill them. I will make them go hungry. They will have no more food to eat and they will die. ₁₇I will send a famine to you and wild animals that will kill your children. There will be diseases in the city and a lot of people will die in war. I will bring enemies to kill you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’