1 You, son of man, take a sharp sword; as a barber's razor you shall take it to you, and shall cause it to pass over your head and your beard: then take balances to weigh, and divide the hair.
2 A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and you shall take a third part, and strike with the sword round about it; and a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.
3 You shall take a few of the hairs in number, and bind them in your skirts.
4 Of these again shall you take, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; a fire shall come forth from it into all the house of Israel.
5 Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and countries all around her.
6 She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.
7 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you are more rebellious than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my ordinances, neither have done after the ordinances of the nations that are all around you;
8 therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, am against you; and I will execute judgments in the midst of you in the sight of the nations.
9 I will do in you that which I have not done, and of which I will not do any more like it, because of all your abominations.
10 Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of you, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on you; and I will scatter the whole remnant of you to all the winds.
11 Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; neither shall my eye spare, and I also will have no pity.
12 A third part of you shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of you; and a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them.
13 Thus my anger shall be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I shall be comforted; and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them.
14 Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all that pass by.
15 So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the nations that are all around about you, when I shall execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful rebukes; (I, the Lord, have spoken it;)
16 when I shall send on them the evil arrows of famine, that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine on you, and will break your staff of bread;
17 and I will send famine and evil animals on you, and they shall bereave you; and pestilence and blood shall pass through you; and I will bring the sword on you: I, the Lord, have spoken it.