¹ “And you, son of man,¹ take for yourself² a sword, sharp as ⌞a barber’s razor⌟.³ Take it for yourself, and you must cause it to pass over your head and over your beard, and you must take for yourself a set of scales for weighing, and you must divide them.⁴

1. Or “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
2. Hebrew “you”
3. Literally “the razor of the barbers”
4. That is, the hairs

² A third you must burn with fire in the midst¹ of the city at ⌞the completion⌟² of the days of the siege, and you must take a third, and you must strike it with the sword around it, and a third you must scatter to the wind, and I will draw a sword behind them.

1. Or “middle”
2. Literally “the completing”

³ And you must take from these a few in number, and you must tuck them in your hem.

⁴ And from them again you shall take some, and you must throw them in the middle of the fire, and you must burn them with fire; from it a fire will go out to all of the house of Israel.

⁵ Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This is Jerusalem in the midst of the nations where I have put her, and countries are around her.

⁶ But she has rebelled against my regulations to the point of wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they rejected my regulations, and as for my statutes, they did not walk in them.

⁷ Therefore, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because of your commotion more than the nations that are around you—you did not walk in my statutes, and you did not do my regulations, and according to the regulations of the nations that are around you, you did not do.

⁸ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Look! I, ⌞even I⌟,¹ am against you, and I will execute judgment in the midst of you before the eyes of the nations,

1. Literally “surely I”

⁹ and I will do with you that which I have not done, and which I will not do again, because of all of your detestable things.

¹⁰ Therefore¹ parents² will eat children³ in the midst of you, and children⁴ will eat their parents,⁵ and I will execute judgment in you, and I will scatter your entire remnant to every wind.

1. Literally “to thus”
2. Or “fathers”
3. Or “sons”
4. Or “sons”
5. Or “fathers”

¹¹ Therefore ⌞as surely as I live⌟,¹ ⌞declares⌟² the Lord Yahweh, ⌞Surely⌟³ because you have defiled my sanctuary with all of your vile idols and with all of your detestable things, ⌞now indeed I⌟⁴ will reduce, and my eye will not take pity, and surely I will show no compassion.

1. Literally “alive I am”
2. Literally “declaration of”
3. Literally “If not”
4. Literally “and also I”

¹² A third of you will die because of the plague, and because of the famine they will perish in the midst of you, and a third will fall through the sword around you, and a third I will scatter to every direction of the wind, and I will draw the sword behind them.

¹³ And my anger will come to an end, and I will place my rage on them, and I will relent, and they will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my passion ⌞when I fully vent my rage against them⌟.¹

1. Literally “at my finishing my anger against them”

¹⁴ And I will make you into a desolate place and into a disgrace among the nations that surround you before the eyes of ⌞every one who passes by⌟.¹

1. Literally “every one of passing by”

¹⁵ And it will be¹ an object of taunting² and an object of mockery, a warning and a horror to the nations that are around you whenever I execute judgments against you in anger and in wrath and in furious punishments! I, Yahweh, have spoken!

1. Or “and you will be”
2. Hebrew “taunt”

¹⁶ When I send my arrows of deadly famine against them, which will be as destruction that I will send in order to destroy you, I will increase famine against you, and I will break ⌞the supply of food⌟¹ for you.

1. Literally “staff of bread”

¹⁷ And I will send against you famine and fierce animals,¹ and they will make you childless; and plague and blood will pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I, Yahweh, I have spoken!”

1. Hebrew “animal”