Ezekiel 5

²⁰On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates—the king of Assyria—to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to remove your beard as well.

⁵Priests must not make bald spots on their heads, shave off the edges of their beards, or make cuts in their bodies.

²⁰They must not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but must carefully trim their hair.

²⁷TEKEL means that you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.

¹²A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

³³But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.

¹⁴And I will scatter to every wind all the attendants around him and all his troops, and I will draw a sword to chase after them.

¹“Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you, and draw on it the city of Jerusalem.

²Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp to it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it on all sides.

¹⁶I will scatter them among the nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”

²If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the Lord says: ‘Those destined for death, to death; those destined for the sword, to the sword; those destined for famine, to famine; and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’

¹⁶But Nebuzaradan captain of the guard left behind some of the poorest of the land to tend the vineyards and fields.

⁶So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah and stayed with him among the people who were left in the land.

¹⁰But Nebuzaradan left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people who had no property, and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields.

¹⁸And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

¹⁴But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.

¹²But the captain of the guard left behind some of the poorest of the land to tend the vineyards and fields.

⁴⁵“Those who flee will stand helpless in Heshbon’s shadow, because fire has gone forth from Heshbon and a flame from within Sihon. It devours the foreheads of Moab and the skulls of the sons of tumult.

¹In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family and one of the king’s chief officers, came with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah, and they ate a meal together there.

²Then Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him got up and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, killing the one whom the king of Babylon had appointed to govern the land.

²⁵In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down and killed Gedaliah, along with the Judeans and Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.

⁴Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it, because of your evil deeds.”

³⁰in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried away 745 Jews. So in all, 4,600 people were taken away.

¹“Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you, and draw on it the city of Jerusalem.

⁶Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

⁶For this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “Cut down the trees and raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem. This city must be punished; there is nothing but oppression in her midst.

¹⁴Your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect in the splendor I bestowed on you, declares the Lord God.

⁷Then the remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which do not wait for man or linger for mankind.

¹⁴You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

¹⁰They have returned to the sins of their forefathers who refused to obey My words. They have followed other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their fathers.

⁴⁷And you not only walked in their ways and practiced their abominations, but soon you were more depraved than they were.

⁴⁸As surely as I live, declares the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did as you and your daughters have done.

¹¹But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.

⁸and walked in the customs of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites, as well as in the practices introduced by the kings of Israel.

⁹The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city, they built high places in all their cities.

¹⁶But they and our fathers became arrogant and stiff-necked and did not obey Your commandments.

¹⁷They refused to listen and failed to remember the wonders You performed among them. They stiffened their necks and appointed a leader to return them to their bondage in Egypt. But You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in loving devotion, and You did not forsake them.

¹⁰They failed to keep God’s covenant and refused to live by His law.

¹⁰Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and take a look; send to Kedar and consider carefully; see if there has ever been anything like this:

¹¹Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.

⁹But the people did not listen and Manasseh led them astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

¹⁰And the Lord spoke through His servants the prophets, saying,

⁹So Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

¹¹Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord God, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you.

⁴⁷And you not only walked in their ways and practiced their abominations, but soon you were more depraved than they were.

⁴⁸As surely as I live, declares the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did as you and your daughters have done.

⁵⁴So you will bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you did to comfort them.

⁷And I will set My face against them. Though they may have escaped the fire, yet another fire will consume them. And when I set My face against them, you will know that I am the Lord.

⁹I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.

⁵And I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, with anger, fury, and great wrath.

¹³Behold, I am against you who dwell above the valley, atop the rocky plateau—declares the Lord—you who say, “Who can come against us? Who can enter our dwellings?”

³and tell her that this is what the Lord says: ‘I am against you, and I will draw My sword from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked.

⁸And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’

⁹And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, the Lord has brought all this disaster upon them.’”

¹²You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.

²¹For at that time there will be great tribulation, unseen from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again.

²“Only you have I known from all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

⁹Those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, who waste away, pierced with pain because the fields lack produce.

⁶The punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in an instant without a hand turned to help her.

⁶“Get up! Get up! Flee from the land of the north,” declares the Lord, “for I have scattered you like the four winds of heaven,” declares the Lord.

⁶⁴Then the Lord will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

⁹I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’

¹⁴And I will scatter to every wind all the attendants around him and all his troops, and I will draw a sword to chase after them.

²⁹You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.

²When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them.

²⁰His beautiful ornaments they transformed into pride and used them to fashion their vile images and detestable idols. Therefore I will make these into something unclean for them.

¹⁴Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, following all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the Lord, which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.

⁴I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’

⁵“Son of man,” He said to me, “now lift up your eyes to the north.” So I lifted up my eyes to the north, and in the entrance north of the Altar Gate I saw this idol of jealousy.

⁶“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what they are doing—the great abominations that the house of Israel is committing—to drive Me far from My sanctuary? Yet you will see even greater abominations.”

¹⁸When they return to it, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations.

⁹Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known,

¹⁰and then come and stand before Me in this house, which bears My Name, and say, ‘We are delivered, so we can continue with all these abominations’?

²When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them.

²If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the Lord says: ‘Those destined for death, to death; those destined for the sword, to the sword; those destined for famine, to famine; and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’

¹⁰Then tell them that this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones that I have embedded, and he will spread his royal pavilion over them.

¹¹He will come and strike down the land of Egypt, bringing death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and the sword to those destined for the sword.

⁹Whoever stays in this city will die by sword and famine and plague, but whoever goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who besiege you will live; he will retain his life like a spoil of war.

¹⁴And I will scatter to every wind all the attendants around him and all his troops, and I will draw a sword to chase after them.

²⁷I am watching over them for harm and not for good, and every man of Judah who is in the land of Egypt will meet his end by sword or famine, until they are finished off.

⁵Therefore this is what the Lord God says: Surely in My burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who took My land as their own possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, so that its pastureland became plunder.

⁶Therefore, prophesy concerning the land of Israel and tell the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys, that this is what the Lord God says: Behold, I have spoken in My burning zeal because you have endured the reproach of the nations.

¹²He who is far off will die by the plague, he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains will die by famine. So I will vent My fury upon them.

²⁴Therefore the Lord God of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah, I will be relieved of My foes and avenge Myself on My enemies.

⁸Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you and vent My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations.

²¹But the children rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes or carefully observe My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they profaned My Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the wilderness.

¹¹The Lord has exhausted His wrath; He has poured out His fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations.

¹A Psalm of Asaph. The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.

²They have given the corpses of Your servants as food to the birds of the air, the flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth.

³Turn Your steps to the everlasting ruins, to everything in the sanctuary the enemy has destroyed.

⁴Your foes have roared within Your meeting place; they have unfurled their banners as signs,

⁴you are guilty of the blood you have shed, and you are defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days to a close and have come to the end of your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mockery to all the lands.

¹⁷Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned down. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we will no longer be a disgrace.”

⁴The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she herself is bitter with anguish.

¹²Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.

⁸And many nations will pass by this city and ask one another, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this great city?’

⁹Then people will reply, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’”

¹⁷I will execute great vengeance against them with furious reproof. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I lay My vengeance upon them.’”

⁴We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.

⁹My soul longs for You in the night; indeed, my spirit seeks You at dawn. For when Your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.

⁷then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.

²⁴So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’

²⁵And the people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁶Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.

²³I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them.

²⁴They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.

¹³He has prepared His deadly weapons; He ordains His arrows with fire.

²⁶When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.

¹For behold, the Lord God of Hosts is about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: the whole supply of food and water,

²⁵So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.

²²I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed. I will pour out torrents of rain, hailstones, fire, and sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him.

²²I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate.

²⁵Now when the settlers first lived there, they did not worship the Lord, so He sent lions among them, which killed some of them.

¹⁵Or if I send wild beasts through the land to leave it childless and desolate, with no man passing through it for fear of the beasts,

²⁷Tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘As surely as I live, those in the ruins will fall by the sword, those in the open field I will give to be devoured by wild animals, and those in the strongholds and caves will die by plague.

²¹For this is what the Lord God says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments—sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—in order to cut off from it both man and beast?