1 You, son of man, take a sharp sword; as a barber’s razor
shall you take it to you, and shall cause it to pass on your head and on your
beard: then take balances to weigh, and divide the hair. 2 A third part
shall you burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the
siege are fulfilled; and you shall take a third part, and strike with the
sword round about it; and a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I
will draw out a sword after them. 3 You shall take of it a few in number,
and bind them in your skirts. 4 Of these again shall you take, and cast
them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; from it shall a
fire come forth into all the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the Lord Yahweh:
This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries
are round about her. 6 She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing
wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the
countries that are round about her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and
as for my statutes, they have not walked in them. 7 Therefore thus says
the Lord Yahweh: Because you are turbulent more than the nations that
are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my
ordinances, neither have done after the ordinances of the nations that are
round about you; 8 therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I, even I,
am against you; and I will execute judgments in the midst of you in the sight
of the nations. 9 I will do in you that which I have not done, and
whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all your abominations.
10 Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of you, and the
sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on you; and the
whole remnant of you will I scatter to all the winds. 11 Therefore, as I
live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary
with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore
will I also diminish you; neither shall my eye spare, and I also will
have no pity. 12 A third part of you shall die with the pestilence, and
with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of you; and a third part
shall fall by the sword round about you; and a third part I will scatter to
all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them. 13 Thus shall my
anger be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I
shall be comforted; and they shall know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my
zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them. 14 Moreover I will make
you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are round about you,
in the sight of all that pass by. 15 So it shall be a reproach and a
taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the nations that are round
about you, when I shall execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and
in wrathful rebukes; (I, Yahweh, have spoken it;) 16 when I shall send on
them the evil arrows of famine, that are for destruction, which I will send
to destroy you: and I will increase the famine on you, and will break your
staff of bread; 17 and I will send on you famine and evil animals, and
they shall bereave you; and pestilence and blood shall pass through you; and
I will bring the sword on you: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
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