Ezekiel 5:1-5

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. 5:3 But take a few strands of hair ³  from those and tie them in the ends of your garment. ⁴  5:4 Again, take more of them and throw them into the fire, ⁵  and burn them up. From there a fire will spread to all the house of Israel.

5:5 “This is what the sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem; I placed her in the center of the nations with countries all around her.

[5:1]  ¹ tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.

[5:1]  ² tn Heb, “pass (it) over your head and your beard.”

[5:3]  ³ tn Heb “from there a few in number.” The word “strands” has been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ⁴ sn Objects could be carried in the end of a garment (Hag 2:12).

[5:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “into the midst of” (so KJV, ASV). This phrase has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.