Judgment against Jerusalem

1And you, son of man, take you a sharp knife, take you a barber's razor, and cause it to pass on your head and on your beard: then take you balances to weigh, and divide the hair. 2You shall burn with fire a third part in the middle of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and you shall take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part you shall scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them. 3You shall also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in your skirts. 4Then take of them again, and cast them into the middle of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.

5Thus said the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the middle of the nations and countries that are round about her. 6And she has changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them. 7Therefore thus said the Lord GOD; Because you multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you; 8Therefore thus said the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, am against you, and will execute judgments in the middle of you in the sight of the nations. 9And I will do in you that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all your abominations. 10Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the middle of you, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in you, and the whole remnant of you will I scatter into all the winds. 11Why, as I live, said the Lord GOD; Surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore will I also diminish you; neither shall my eye spare, neither will I have any pity.

Famine, Sword, and Dispersion

12A third part of you shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the middle of you: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about you; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.

13Thus shall my anger be accomplished, 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 accomplished my fury in them. 14Moreover I will make you waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about you, in the sight of all that pass by. 15So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment to the nations that are round about you, when I shall execute judgments in you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it. 16When I shall send on them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine on you, and will break your staff of bread: 17So will I send on you famine and evil beasts, 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.