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Jerusalem's Desolation Foretold

¹ "As for you, son of man, take a ^(C1)sharp sword; take and ^(F1)use it as a barber's razor on your head and beard. Then take ^(C2)scales for weighing and divide ^(F2)the hair.² "One third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the ^(C1)days of the siege are completed. Then you shall take one third and strike it with the sword all around ^(F1)the city, and one third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will ^(C2)unsheathe a sword behind them.³ "Take also a few in number from ^(F1)them and bind them in the edges of your robes.⁴ "Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will ^(F1)spread to all the house of Israel.

⁵ "Thus says the Lord ^(F1)GOD, 'This is ^(C1)Jerusalem; I have set her at the ^(C2)center of the nations, with lands around her.⁶ 'But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes ^(C1)more than the lands which surround her; for they have ^(C2)rejected My ordinances and have not walked ^(F1)in My statutes.'⁷ "Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Because you have ^(C1)more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,'⁸ therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold, I, even I, am ^(C1)against you, and I will ^(C2)execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.⁹ 'And because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have ^(C1)not done, and the like of which I will never do again.¹⁰ 'Therefore, ^(C1)fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and ^(C2)scatter all your remnant to every wind.¹¹ 'So as I live,' declares the Lord GOD, 'surely, because you have ^(C1)defiled My sanctuary with all your ^(C2)detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw, and My eye will have no pity and I will not spare.¹² 'One third of you will die by ^(C1)plague or be consumed by famine among you, one third will fall by the sword around you, and one third I will ^(C2)scatter to every wind, and I will ^(C3)unsheathe a sword behind them.

¹³ 'Thus My anger will be spent and I will ^(F1)satisfy My wrath on them, and I will be ^(F2)(C1)appeased; then they will know that I, the LORD, have ^(C2)spoken in My zeal when I have spent My wrath upon them.¹⁴ 'Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a ^(C1)reproach among the nations which surround you, in the sight of all who pass by.¹⁵ 'So ^(F1)it will be a reproach, a reviling, a ^(C1)warning and an object of horror to the nations who surround you when I ^(C2)execute judgments against you in anger, wrath and raging rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken.¹⁶ 'When I send against them the ^(F1)deadly arrows of famine which ^(F2)were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break the staff of bread.¹⁷ 'Moreover, ^(C1)I will send on you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you of children; ^(C2)plague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the LORD, have spoken.'"