The Siege of Jerusalem

1“Now as for you, son of man, take a sharp sword; take and [†]use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take scales for weighing and divide [†]the hair. 2One-third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city when the days of the siege are fulfilled. Then you shall take one-third and strike it with the sword all around [†]the city, and one-third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will unsheathe a sword behind them. 3You shall also take a few in number from [†]them and bind them in the edges of your robes. 4Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will [†]spread to all the house of Israel.

5“Thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands all around her. 6But she has rebelled against My judgments more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes more than the lands which are all around her; for they have rejected My judgments and have not walked [†]in My statutes.’ 7Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Because you have more turmoil than the nations which are all around you and have not walked in My statutes, nor done My judgments, nor done the judgments of the nations which are all around you,’ 8therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. 9And I will do among you what I have not done and the like of which I will never do again because of all your abominations. 10Therefore, fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and scatter all your remnant to every wind. 11So as I live,’ declares Lord Yahweh, ‘surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw, and My eye will have no pity, and I will not spare. 12One-third of you will die by the plague or be consumed by the famine among you, one-third will fall by the sword around you, and one-third I will scatter to every wind, and I will unsheathe a sword behind them.

13‘Thus My anger will be spent, and I will cause My wrath against them to be at rest, and I will be [†]appeased; then they will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in My zeal when I have spent My wrath upon them. 14Moreover, I will make you a [†]ruin and a reproach among the nations which are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by. 15So [†]it will be a reproach, a reviling, a chastisement, and a desecration to the nations who are all around you when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and wrathful reproofs. I, Yahweh, have spoken. 16When I send against them the [†]deadly arrows of famine which [†]were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break the staff of bread. 17Moreover, I will send on you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you of children; plague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, Yahweh, have spoken.’”