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¹ `And thou, son of man, take to thee a sharp weapon, the barber's razor thou dost take to thee, and thou hast caused [it] to pass over thy head, and over thy beard, and thou hast taken to thee weighing scales, and apportioned them.² A third part with fire thou dost burn in the midst of the city, at the fulness of the days of the siege; and thou hast taken the third part, thou dost smite with a weapon round about it; and the third part thou dost scatter to the wind, and a weapon I draw out after them.³ And thou hast taken thence a few in number -- and hast bound them in thy skirts;⁴ and of them thou dost take again, and hast cast them unto the midst of the fire, and hast burned them in the fire -- out of it cometh forth a fire unto all the house of Israel.

⁵ Thus said the Lord Jehovah: this [is] Jerusalem, In the midst of the nations I have set her, And round about her [are] the lands.⁶ And she changeth My judgments into wickedness more than the nations, And My statutes more than the lands that [are] round about her, For against My judgments they have kicked, And My statutes -- they have not walked in them.⁷ Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of your multiplying above the nations that [are] around you, In My statutes ye have not walked, And My judgments ye have not done, According to the judgments of the nations That [are] round about you ye have not done.⁸ Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I [am] against thee, even I, And I have done in thy midst judgments, Before the eyes of the nations.⁹ And I have done in thee that which I have not done, And that which I do not its like again, Because of all thine abominations.¹⁰ Therefore fathers do eat sons in thy midst, And sons eat their fathers, And I have done in thee judgments, And have scattered all thy remnant to every wind.¹¹ Therefore, I live -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah: Because My sanctuary thou hast defiled, With all thy detestable things, And with all thine abominations, Mine eye pitieth not, and I also spare not. Do not even I also diminish?¹² Thy third part -- by pestilence they die, And by famine are consumed in thy midst, And the third part, by sword they fall round about thee, And the third part, to every wind I scatter, And a sword I draw out after them.¹³ And completed hath been Mine anger, And I have caused My fury to rest on them, And I have been comforted, And they have known that I, Jehovah, have spoken in My zeal, In My completing My fury on them.¹⁴ And I give thee for a waste, And for a reproach among nations that [are] round about thee, Before the eyes of every passer by.¹⁵ And it hath been a reproach and a reviling, An instruction and an astonishment, To nations that [are] round about thee, In My doing in thee judgments, In anger and fury, and in furious reproofs, I, Jehovah, 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 famine I am adding upon you, And I have broken to you the staff of bread.¹⁷ And I have sent on you famine and evil beasts, And they have bereaved thee, And pestilence and blood pass over on thee, And a sword I do bring in against thee, I, Jehovah, have spoken!'