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Ezekiel 5
New King James Version

### A Sword Against Jerusalem

5 “And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, (A)and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. 2 (B)You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of (C)the city, when (D)the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after (E)them. 3 (F)You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment. 4 Then take some of them again and (G)throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.

5 “Thus says the Lord God: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her. 6 She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.’ 7 Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have [a]multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes (H)nor kept My judgments, [b]nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you’— 8 therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. 9 (I)And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations. 10 Therefore fathers (J)shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will (K)scatter to all the winds.

11 ‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have (L)defiled My sanctuary with all your (M)detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; (N)My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity. 12 (O)One-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; and (P)I will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after (Q)them.

13 ‘Thus shall My anger (R)be spent, and I will (S)cause My fury to rest upon them, (T)and I will be avenged; (U)and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them. 14 Moreover (V)I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

15 ‘So [c]it shall be a (W)reproach, a taunt, a (X)lesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in (Y)furious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken. 16 When I (Z)send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your (AA)supply of bread. 17 So I will send against you famine and (AB)wild beasts, and they will bereave you. (AC)Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”

#### Footnotes

1. Ezekiel 5:7 Or raged
2. Ezekiel 5:7 So with MT, LXX, Tg., Vg.; many Heb. mss., Syr. but have done (cf. 11:12)
3. Ezekiel 5:15 LXX, Syr., Tg., Vg. you

#### Cross references

1. Ezekiel 5:1 : Lev. 21:5; Is. 7:20; Ezek. 44:20
2. Ezekiel 5:2 : Ezek. 5:12
3. Ezekiel 5:2 : Ezek. 4:1
4. Ezekiel 5:2 : Ezek. 4:8, 9
5. Ezekiel 5:2 : Lev. 26:25; Lam. 1:20
6. Ezekiel 5:3 : Jer. 40:6; 52:16
7. Ezekiel 5:4 : Jer. 41:1, 2; 44:14
8. Ezekiel 5:7 : 2 Kin. 21:9–11; 2 Chr. 33:9; Jer. 2:10, 11; Ezek. 16:47
9. Ezekiel 5:9 : Lam. 4:6; Dan. 9:12; [Amos 3:2]; Matt. 24:21
10. Ezekiel 5:10 : Lev. 26:29; Deut. 28:53; 2 Kin. 6:29; Jer. 19:9; Lam. 2:20; 4:10
11. Ezekiel 5:10 : Lev. 26:33; Deut. 28:64; Ps. 44:11; Ezek. 5:2, 12; 6:8; 12:14; Amos 9:9; Zech. 2:6; 7:14
12. Ezekiel 5:11 : 2 Chr. 36:14; [Jer. 7:9–11]; Ezek. 8:5, 6, 16
13. Ezekiel 5:11 : Ezek. 11:21
14. Ezekiel 5:11 : Ezek. 7:4, 9; 8:18; 9:10
15. Ezekiel 5:12 : Jer. 15:2; 21:9; Ezek. 6:12
16. Ezekiel 5:12 : Jer. 9:16; [Ezek. 6:8]
17. Ezekiel 5:12 : Jer. 43:10, 11; 44:27; Ezek. 5:2; 12:14
18. Ezekiel 5:13 : Lam. 4:11; Ezek. 6:12; 7:8
19. Ezekiel 5:13 : Ezek. 21:17
20. Ezekiel 5:13 : [Deut. 32:36]; Is. 1:24
21. Ezekiel 5:13 : Is. 59:17; Ezek. 36:6; 38:19
22. Ezekiel 5:14 : Lev. 26:31; Neh. 2:17
23. Ezekiel 5:15 : Deut. 28:37; 1 Kin. 9:7; Ps. 79:4; Jer. 24:9; Lam. 2:15
24. Ezekiel 5:15 : [Is. 26:9]; Jer. 22:8, 9; 1 Cor. 10:11
25. Ezekiel 5:15 : Is. 66:15, 16; Ezek. 5:8; 25:17
26. Ezekiel 5:16 : Deut. 32:23
27. Ezekiel 5:16 : Lev. 26:26; Ezek. 4:16; 14:13
28. Ezekiel 5:17 : Lev. 26:22; Deut. 32:24; Ezek. 14:21; 33:27; 34:25; Rev. 6:8
29. Ezekiel 5:17 : Ezek. 38:22

New King James Version (NKJV)

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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