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Jerusalem Will Be Destroyed

¹ "And you, ^(a)O son of man, take a ^(b)sharp sword. Use it as ^(c)a barber's razor and ^(d)pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair. ^2 (e)A third part you shall burn in the fire ^(f)in the midst of the city, ^(g)when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. ^(h)And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and ⁽ⁱ⁾I will unsheathe the sword after them. ^3 (j)And you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe. ^4 (k)And of these again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.

⁵ "Thus says the Lord God: ^(l)This is Jerusalem. I have set her ^(m)in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. ⁶ And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness ⁽ⁿ⁾more than the nations, and against my statutes more than ^(o)the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. ⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you are ^(p)more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, ^(q)and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, ^(r)and have not^[a] even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, ⁸ therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, ^(s)am against you. ^(t)And I will execute judgments^[b] in your midst ^(u)in the sight of the nations. ⁹ And because of all your abominations I will do with you ^(v)what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. ¹⁰ Therefore ^(w)fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. ^(x)And I will execute judgments on you, ^(y)and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds. ¹¹ Therefore, ^(z)as I live, declares the Lord God, surely, ^(aa)because you have defiled my sanctuary ^(ab)with all your detestable things and with all your ^(ac)abominations, ^(ad)therefore I will withdraw.^{[c] (ae)}My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. ^12 (af)A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; ^(ag)a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; ^(ah)and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them.

^13 (ai)"Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that ^(aj)I am the Lord—that I have spoken in my jealousy—^(ak)when I spend my fury upon them. ¹⁴ Moreover, I will make you ^(al)a desolation and ^(am)an object of reproach among ^(an)the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ You shall be^[d] a reproach and a taunt, a warning ^(ao)and a horror, to ^(ap)the nations all around you, ^(aq)when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and ^(ar)with furious rebukes—I am the Lord; I have spoken— ¹⁶ when I send against you^{[e] (as)}the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon ^(at)you and break your supply^[f] of bread. ¹⁷ I will send famine and ^(au)wild beasts against you, ^(av)and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and ^(aw)blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord; I have spoken."