Jerusalem’s Desolation Foretold

1“As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword; take and [a]use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take scales for weighing and divide [b]the hair. 2A third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. Then you shall take a third and strike it with the sword all around [c]the city, and a third you shall scatter to the wind; for I will unsheathe a sword behind them. 3Take also a few hairs in number from [d]them and bind them in the hems 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 [e]spread to all the house of Israel.

5“This is what the Lord [f]GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have placed her at the center of the nations, with lands around her. 6But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes more than the lands which surround her; for they have rejected My ordinances and have not walked [g]in My statutes.’ 7Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have more turmoil than the nations that surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor executed My ordinances, nor acted in accordance with the ordinances of the nations around you,’ 8therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. 9And because of all your abominations I will do among you what I have not done, and the like of which I will never do again. 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. 11Therefore as I live,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘Because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, I definitely will also withdraw and My eye will have no pity, and I also will not spare. 12A third of you will die by plague or perish by famine among you, a third will fall by the sword around you, and a third I will scatter to every wind, and I will unsheathe a sword behind them.

13‘Then My anger will be spent and I will satisfy My wrath on them, and I will be appeased; then they will know that I, the LORD, have spoken in My zeal, when I have spent My wrath upon them. 14Moreover, I will make you a site of ruins and a disgrace among the nations that surround you, in the sight of everyone who passes by. 15So [h]it will be a disgrace, an object of abuse, a warning, and an object of horror to the nations that surround you when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging reprimands. I, the LORD, have spoken. 16When I send against them the [i]deadly arrows of famine which [j]were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break off your [k]provision of bread. 17I will send on you famine and vicious animals, and they will bereave you of children; plague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the LORD, have spoken.’”