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¹ "And you, son of man, take a sharp weapon for yourself, take the barber's razor for yourself, and you have caused [it] to pass over your head, and over your beard, and you have taken weighing scales for yourself, and apportioned them.² You burn a third part with fire in the midst of the city, at the fullness of the days of the siege; and you have taken the third part, you strike with a weapon around it; and the third part you scatter to the wind, and I draw out a weapon after them.³ And you have taken there a few in number—and have bound them in your skirts;⁴ and you take of them again, and have cast them into the midst of the fire, and have burned them in the fire—out of it comes forth a fire to all the house of Israel."

⁵ Thus said Lord YHWH: "This [is] Jerusalem, || I have set her in the midst of the nations, || And the lands [are] around her.⁶ And she changes My judgments into wickedness more than the nations, || And My statutes more than the lands that [are] around her, || For they have kicked against My judgments, || And My statutes—they have not walked in them."⁷ Therefore, thus said Lord YHWH: "Because of your multiplying above the nations that [are] around you, || You have not walked in My statutes, || And you have not done My judgments, || According to the judgments of the nations that [are] around you, you have not done."⁸ Therefore, thus said Lord YHWH: "Behold, I [am] against you, even I, || And I have done judgments in your midst, || Before the eyes of the nations.⁹ And I have done in you that which I have not done, || And the like of which I do not do again, || Because of all your abominations.¹⁰ Therefore fathers eat sons in your midst, || And sons eat their fathers, || And I have done judgments in you, || And have scattered all your remnant to every wind.¹¹ Therefore, [as] I live," a declaration of Lord YHWH, || "Because you have defiled My sanctuary || With all your detestable things, || And with all your abominations, || Therefore I also diminish you, || And My eye does not pity, and I do not spare.¹² Your third part dies by pestilence, || And are consumed by famine in your midst, || And the third part fall by sword around you, || And the third part I scatter to every wind, || And I draw out a sword after them.¹³ And My anger has been completed, || And I have caused My fury to rest on them, || And I have been comforted, || And they have known that I, YHWH, have spoken in My zeal, || In My completing My fury on them.¹⁴ And I give you for a ruin, || And for a reproach among nations that [are] around you, || Before the eyes of everyone passing by.¹⁵ And it has been a reproach and a reviling, || An instruction and an astonishment, || To nations that [are] around you, || In My doing judgments in you, || In anger and fury, and in furious reproofs, || I, YHWH, have spoken.¹⁶ In My sending the evil arrows of famine among them, || That have been for destruction, || That I send to destroy you, || And I am adding famine on you, || And I have broken your staff of bread.¹⁷ And I have sent famine and evil beasts on you, || And they have bereaved you, || And pestilence and blood pass over on you, || And I bring a sword in against you, || I, YHWH, have spoken!"