1 And you, son of man, take a sharp sword to yourself, take a barber's razor also, and cause [it] to pass on your head and on your beard. Then take scales to weigh, and divide the [hair].
2 You shall burn a third part with fire in the middle of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and you shall take a third part [and] beat around it with a sword; and you shall scatter a third part in the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.
3 Also you shall take a few of them in number, and tie them up in your skirts.
4 Then take of them again, and throw them into the middle of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for a fire shall come forth from them into all the house of Israel.
5 So says the Lord Jehovah: This [is] Jerusalem. I have set it in the middle of the nations, and all around her [are] the lands.
6 And she has changed My judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and [defiled] My laws more than the countries that [are] all around her; for they have rejected My judgments and My laws; they have not walked in them.
7 Therefore so says the Lord Jehovah: Because you multiplied more than the nations that [are] all around you, [and] have not walked in My laws, neither have kept My judgments, nor have done according to the judgments of the nations all around you;
8 therefore so says the Lord Jehovah; Behold, I, even I, [am] against you, and will carry out judgments in your midst before the nations.
9 And I will do in you that which I have not done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations.
10 So the fathers shall eat the sons in your midst, and the sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments in you, and I will scatter the whole remnant of you into all the winds.
11 Therefore, [as] I live, says the Lord Jehovah, surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw; nor shall My eye spare you, nor will I have any pity.
12 A third part of you shall die with the plague, and shall be consumed with the famine in your midst. And a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.
13 So My anger shall be fulfilled, and I will cause My fury to rest on them, and I will be comforted. And they shall know that I the LORD have spoken [it] in My zeal, when I have fulfilled My fury in them.
14 And I will make you a waste and a curse among the nations that [are] all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.
15 So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an chastening and a horror to the nations which [are] all around you, when I shall execute judgments against you in anger and in fury and in rebukes [among them]. I the LORD have spoken it.
16 When I shall send on them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for [their] ruin, which I will send to destroy you; even I will increase the famine on you, and break your staff of bread;
17 yea, I will send on you famine and evil beasts, and you will be bereaved. And pestilence and blood shall pass among you; and I shall bring a sword on you. I the LORD have spoken.