1And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.
Lie thou also upon thy left side ... three hundred and ninety days. 4:4
Trivia: In Ezekiel 39, who did God invite to eat flesh and get drunk with blood?
5:1-9
1And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.
God said,
Cut off your hair and beard with a knife. [1]
Then weigh the hair with a balance.
2Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.
Burn one-third in the middle of Jerusalem.
Take another third and smite it about with a knife.
And scatter the remaining third in the wind.
I will chase after the hair in the wind with my sword.
3Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts.
Keep a few strands to tie on your skirt.
4Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.
5 Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.
6 And she hath 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.
7 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye 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;
8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.
9 And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.
Burn these strands in the fire later.
5:11-17
10Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.
God said,
Fathers will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. [2]
11 Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.
Because you have defiled my sanctuary with abominations and detestable things,
I will kill you all without pity.
12A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.
A third of you will die with pestilence and famine.
Another third will die with the sword.
And I'll scatter the remaining third to the winds, while chasing them with a sword.
13Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon 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.
This will satisfy my anger and fury,
and I will be comforted.
And they'll know that I'm God.
14Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by.
I'll completely destroy you.
All the nations will laugh at you as they pass by.
15So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it.
All your neighbors will be astonished when they see what happened to you.
16When I shall send upon 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 upon you, and will break your staff of bread:
I'll send the evil arrows of famine to destroy you by starving you to death.
17So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee: and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it.
I'll send wild beasts to eat you,
and bring pestilence, blood, and the sword to kill the survivors.
I, God, have said it.
The message that God is trying to send with Ezekiel's haircut is explained in the next section.
God will kill one-third of the people of Israel with pestilence and famine (hair is burned), another third with the sword (hair is smited around with a sword), and another third will be scattered (hair is scattered by the wind), while being chased with the sword. The few stands of hair in Ezekiel's skirt are the few survivors, which God will dispose of later.
