1“And now, son of man, take a sharp knife, a barber's razor, and use it to shave your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. 2You shall burn one third in the center of your mockup of the city, when the days of the siege come to an end; and take a third, and strike it with a knife (as a sword); and the last third you shall scatter to the wind; for I will pursue them with the sword. 3But you shall also take a few hairs, and tuck them in the folds of your garment. 4Then take a few of them again, and throw them into the middle of the fire, and burn them; for from them shall a fire come forth to destroy all of Israel.”

5Thus says the LORD God: “This is Jerusalem; I have set it in the center of the nations and the countries that are all around her. 6And she has changed (perverted) My ordinances into wickedness more than all other nations, and My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have rejected My ordinances and My statutes, they have not abided by them. 7Therefore, thus says the LORD God: ‘Because you sinned more than the nations that are all around you, and have not obeyed by My statutes, nor kept My ordinances, nor done according to the practices of the nations that are all around you’; 8Therefore, thus says the LORD God: ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you, and will impose punishments upon you in the sight of those nations. 9And because of all your abominable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before, and will never do again. 10Therefore, parents among you shall eat their children; and children shall eat their parents; and I will inflict punishments upon you, and I will scatter your survivors to the four winds. 11Therefore, as sure as I live’, says the LORD God: ‘Because you have defiled My Temple (sanctuary) with all your detestable images and practices, I will also remove My favor from you; My eye shall not spare, nor will I have any pity. 12A third of those among you shall die of pestilence and starvation; a third shall die by the swords that surround you; and I will scatter a third to the winds, and the sword will pursue them. 13Then shall I be avenged and My anger will subside, after I have spent My wrath upon them, and they shall know that I, the LORD, have fulfilled in them what I have said in My fury. 14Moreover, I will make you a wasteland, and a reproach among the nations that are around you, visible to all that pass by. 15So shall you be a reproach and a taunt, a warning, and an object of horror (astonishment) to all the nations that are around you, when I shall impose these judgments upon you in anger and in stinging rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken. 16When I shall shoot My deadly arrows of famine, sent to destroy you; as the famine increases as your food supply is cut off; 17I will send famine and wild animals among you, that shall bereave you of your children; and plague and bloodshed shall sweep through you; and I will bring the sword upon you. I, the LORD, have spoken it.’”