Eze 5 | ESV | STEP | And you , O son of man , take a sharp sword . Use it as a barber’s razor and pass it over your head and your beard . Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair.

1 “And you, ^aO son of man, take a ^bsharp sword. Use it as ^ca barber’s razor and ^dpass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair. 2 ^eA third part you shall burn in the fire ^fin the midst of the city, ^gwhen the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. ^hAnd a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and ⁱI will unsheathe the sword after them. 3 ^jAnd you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe. 4 ^kAnd of these again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.

5 “Thus says the Lord God: ^lThis is Jerusalem. I have set her ^min the center of the nations, with countries all around her. 6 And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness ⁿmore than the nations, and against my statutes more than ^othe countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. 7 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you are ^pmore turbulent than the nations that are all around you, ^qand have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, ^rand have not ^{▼▼Some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac lack not} even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, 8 therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, ^tam against you. ^uAnd I will execute judgments ^{▼▼The same Hebrew expression can mean obey rules, or execute judgments, depending on the context} in your midst ^win the sight of the nations. 9 And because of all your abominations I will do with you ^xwhat I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. 10 Therefore ^yfathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. ^zAnd I will execute judgments on you, ^aaand any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds. 11 Therefore, ^abas I live, declares the Lord God, surely, ^acbecause you have defiled my sanctuary ^adwith all your detestable things and with all your ^aeabominations, ^aftherefore I will withdraw. ^{▼▼Some Hebrew manuscripts I will cut you down} ^ahMy eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. 12 ^aiA third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; ^aja third part shall fall by the sword all around you; ^akand a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them.

13 ^al“Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that ^amI am the Lord—that I have spoken in my jealousy— ^anwhen I spend my fury upon them. 14 Moreover, I will make you ^aoa desolation and ^apan object of reproach among ^aqthe nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. 15 You shall be ^{▼▼Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Targum; Masoretic Text And it shall be} a reproach and a taunt, a warning ^asand a horror, to ^atthe nations all around you, ^auwhen I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and ^avwith furious rebukes—I am the Lord; I have spoken— 16 when I send against you ^{▼▼Hebrew them} ^axthe deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon ^ayyou and break your supply ^{▼▼Hebrew staff} of bread. 17 I will send famine and ^bawild beasts against you, ^bband they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and ^bcblood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord; I have spoken.”