1. And you, son of man, take to yourself a sharp sword, the razor of a barber. Take it to yourself and make it pass over your head and over your beard. And take to yourself scales to weigh, and to divide them out.
2. You shall burn a third part in the fire, in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled. And you shall take the third part and beat with a sword all around it. And you shall scatter the third part into the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.
3. Also you shall take from there a few in number and bind them in your skirts.
4. And take from them again, and throw them into the middle of the fire and burn them in the fire. From it shall come forth a fire into all the house of Israel.
5. So says the Lord Jehovah: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the midst of the nations, and all around her are the lands.
6. And she has changed My judgments for wickedness more than the nations, and defiled My laws more than the lands 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 rebelled more than the nations that are all around you, not having walked in My statutes, and not having performed My judgments, and you have not 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 execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations.
9. And I will do in you that which I have not done, and which I will not do the like again, for all your abominations.
10. Therefore, the fathers shall eat the sons in your midst, and the sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments against you, and I will scatter the whole remnant of you into every wind.
11. Therefore, as I live, says the Lord Jehovah, surely because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your idolatries and with all your abominations, so I also will withdraw. And My eye shall not spare, and I will not have pity.
12. A third part of you shall die by the plague and shall be consumed by the famine in your midst. And a third part shall fall by the sword all around you. And a third part I will scatter into every wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.
13. And My anger shall be spent, and I will make My fury rest on them, and I will be eased. And they shall know that I, Jehovah, have spoken in My zeal, in My completing My fury among them.
14. And I will make you into a waste and a reproach among the nations that are around you, in the eyes of all who pass by.
15. And it shall be a reproach and a taunt, a chastening and a horror, to the nations which are all around you, when I shall execute against you judgments in anger and in fury and in chastisements among them. I, Jehovah, have spoken it.
16. When I shall send the arrows of evil famine among them, which shall be for ruin, for which I will send them to destroy you, even I will increase the famine on you and break the staff of bread to you.
17. Yea, I will send famine and evil beasts on you, and you will be bereaved. And pestilence and blood shall pass among you, and I shall bring a sword on you. I, Jehovah, have spoken.