1. "Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as you would a barber's razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a pair of scales and divide the hair.
2. You are to burn up one third [of it] in the city when the days of the siege have ended; you are to take one third and slash [it] with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter one third to the wind, for I will draw a sword [to chase] after them.
3. But you are to take a few strands from the hair and secure them in the folds of your [robe].
4. Take some more of them, throw them into the fire, and burn them in it. A fire will spread from it to the whole house of Israel.
5. "This is what the Lord God says: I have set this Jerusalem in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.
6. But she has rebelled against My ordinances with more wickedness than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that surround her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.
7. "Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Because you have been more insubordinate than the nations around you-- you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances; you have not even kept the ordinances of the nations around you--
8. therefore, this is what the Lord God says: See, I am against you, [Jerusalem], and I will execute judgments within you in the sight of the nations.
9. Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before and what I will never do again.
10. As a result, fathers will eat [their] sons within Jerusalem, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your survivors to every direction of the wind.
11. "Therefore, as I live"-- [this is] the declaration of the Lord God-- "I am going to cut [you] off and show [you] no pity, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable practices and abominations. Yes, I will not spare [you].
12. One third of your people will die by plague and be consumed by famine within you; one third will fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter one third to every direction of the wind, and I will draw a sword [to chase] after them.
13. When My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath on them, I will be appeased. Then, after I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, have spoken in My jealousy.
14. "I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by.
15. So you will be a disgrace and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and furious rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken.
16. When I shoot deadly arrows of famine at them, arrows for destruction that I will send to destroy you, [inhabitants of Jerusalem], I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of bread.
17. I will send famine and dangerous animals against you. They will leave you childless, [Jerusalem]. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken."