Ezekiel was also to do something else during the time he was dramatizing the siege of Jerusalem with his model (ch. 4).
"After Ezekiel represented the factof the siege (first sign [4:1-3]), the lengthof the siege (second sign [4:4-8]), and its severity(third sign [4:9-17]), he demonstrated the resultsof the siege (fourth sign [5:1-4])."117
5:1-2 The prophet was to shave the hair of his head and beard with a sword symbolizing the defilement and humiliation that would come on Jerusalem because of her sin. Shaving the head and beard was forbidden for Israelites in their law (Deut. 14:1). It was a pagan practice that expressed great grief and humiliation (cf. 9:3; 27:31; 2 Sam. 10:4-5; Isa. 15:2; 22:12; Jer. 16:16; 41:5-6; 48:37; Amos 8:10). If an Israelite priest shaved his head, he was defiled and no longer holy to the Lord (Lev. 21:5). Thus Ezekiel's action pictured the unclean condition of Israel before the Lord as well as its removal in judgment by Babylon's king (cf. Isa. 7:20).
Then Ezekiel was to divide his cut hair using a scale to measure it in three equal piles. Weighing symbolized discriminating evaluation and impending judgment (cf. Prov. 21:2; ; Jer. 15:2; Dan. 5:27). When the days of the siege were over, after 430 days (4:5-6), He was to burn one-third of the hair in the center of the model of Jerusalem that he had built with the brick (4:1). He should chop up another third of the hair with his sword outside the model city. The remaining third he was to throw up into the air so the wind would blow it away. This represented the fate of the Jews in Jerusalem during the siege. One third would die in the burning and destruction of the city (cf. 2 Kings 25:9), another third would die at the hand of the Babylonian soldiers outside the city (cf. 2 Kings 25:18-21; 2 Chron. 36:17), and one third would go into captivity (cf. 2 Kings 25:11, 21) driven by soldiers that Yahweh would send after them.
5:3-4 Ezekiel was also to take a few hairs from the last group and hide them in the edge of his robe symbolizing the remnant that the Lord would preserve in captivity. Still other hairs he was to throw into the fire representing the fact that the Lord would judge the whole house of Israel. The fire of judgment that would burn in Jerusalem would spread to judge the whole population of Jews.
