The Razor of Judgment

1“ And you, son of man, take for yourself a sharp sword; the razor of a barber take it to yourself and pass it over your head and over your beard; take for yourself balances for weighing, and divide the hair. 2A third with fire you shall burn in the midst of the city at the completion of the days of the siege; and you shall take a third and strike it with the sword around it; and a third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will unsheathe a sword after them.

3And you shall take from them a few in number, and you shall bind them in your skirts. 4And some of them you shall take again and cast them into the midst of the fire, and you shall burn them in the fire; from there will go out a fire into all the house of Israel!

5Thus says the Lord YHWH: ‘This is Jerusalem; in the midst of the nations I have set her, and all around her the countries. 6And she has rebelled against My ordinances for wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are around her—for My ordinances they have refused, and My statutes, they have not walked in them!’

7Therefore, thus says the Lord YHWH: ‘Because of your⁺ turbulence above the nations that are around you⁺, in My statutes you⁺ have not walked, and My ordinances you⁺ have not done—nor have you⁺ done†’ according to the ordinances of the nations that are around you⁺!

8Therefore thus says the Lord YHWH: ‘Behold, I am against you—even I! And I will do in your midst judgments in the eyes of the nations; 9and I will do among you what I have not done, and that which I will do not like it again, because of all your abominations! 10Therefore fathers shall eat the sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute on you judgments, and I will scatter all your remnant to every wind.’

Famine, Sword, and Dispersion

11Therefore, by the life of Me—a declaration of the Lord YHWH—surely because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, My eye will not at all show pity, and I also will not have pity, and I—I will diminish you!

12A third of you—they will die by pestilence and they will be consumed by famine in your midst; and a third will fall by the sword all around you; and a third I will scatter to all the winds and I will unsheath a sword after them!

13And My nose shall be completed and My fury I will cause to rest upon them, and I will be avenged; and they will know that I, YHWH, have spoken it in My zeal, in my completing My fury against them!

14And I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are around you, before the eyes of everyone passing by. 15And you will be† a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations that are around you, in my making against you judgments in anger and in fury and with rebukes of fury—I, YHWH, have spoken—

16in my sending against them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you⁺; and the famine I am adding upon you⁺, and I will cut off unto you⁺ the staff† of bread. 17And I will send against you⁺ famine and evil beasts, and they will bereave you; and pestilence and blood will pass through you, and the sword I will bring upon you!—I, YHWH, have spoken.”