Ezekiel 5:1-2

5:1 “As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor. ¹  Shave off some of the hair from your head and your beard. ²  Then take scales and divide up the hair you cut off. 5:2 Burn a third of it in the fire inside the city when the days of your siege are completed. Take a third and slash it with a sword all around the city. Scatter a third to the wind, and I will unleash a sword behind them.

Ezekiel 5:12-13

5:12 A third of your people will die of plague or be overcome by the famine within you. ³  A third of your people will fall by the sword surrounding you, ⁴  and a third I will scatter to the winds. I will unleash a sword behind them. 5:13 Then my anger will be fully vented; I will exhaust my rage on them, and I will be appeased. ⁵  Then they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my jealousy ⁶  when I have fully vented my rage against them.

¹ tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.

² tn Heb, “pass (it) over your head and your beard.”

³ sn The judgment of plague and famine comes from the covenant curse (Lev 26:25-26). As in v. 10, the city of Jerusalem is figuratively addressed here.

⁴ sn Judgment by plague, famine, and sword occurs in Jer 21:9; 27:13; Ezek 6:11, 12; 7:15.

⁵ tn Or “calm myself.”

⁶ tn The Hebrew noun translated “jealousy” is used in the human realm to describe suspicion of adultery (Num 5:14ff.; Prov 6:34). Since Israel’s relationship with God was often compared to a marriage this term is appropriate here. The term occurs elsewhere in Ezekiel in 8:3, 5; 16:38, 42; 23:25.