«And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barbeŕs razor, and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair.

You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after them.

You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment.

Then take some of them again and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.

«Thus says the Lord GOD: «This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her.

She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.́

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: «Because you have multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes nor kept My judgments, nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around yoú--

therefore thus says the Lord GOD: «Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations.

And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations.

Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds.

«Therefore, as I live,́ says the Lord GOD, «surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity.

One-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.

«Thus shall My anger be spent, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I will be avenged; and they shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them.

Moreover I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

«So it shall be a reproach, a taunt, a lesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken.

When I send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your supply of bread.

So I will send against you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.»́

Now some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me.

And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

«Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity. Should I let Myself be inquired of at all by them?

«Therefore speak to them, and say to them, «Thus says the Lord GOD: «Everyone of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him who comes, according to the multitude of his idols,

that I may seize the house of Israel by their heart, because they are all estranged from Me by their idols.»́

«Therefore say to the house of Israel, «Thus says the Lord GOD: «Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations.

For anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, then comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I the LORD will answer him by Myself.

I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.

«And if the prophet is induced to speak anything, I the LORD have induced that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel.

And they shall bear their iniquity; the punishment of the prophet shall be the same as the punishment of the one who inquired,

that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me, nor be profaned anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be My people and I may be their God,» says the Lord GOD.»́

The word of the LORD came again to me, saying:

«Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it.

Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness,» says the Lord GOD.

«If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they empty it, and make it so desolate that no man may pass through because of the beasts,

even though these three men were in it, as I live,» says the Lord GOD, «they would deliver neither sons nor daughters; only they would be delivered, and the land would be desolate.

«Or if I bring a sword on that land, and say, «Sword, go through the land,́ and I cut off man and beast from it,

even though these three men were in it, as I live,» says the Lord GOD, «they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but only they themselves would be delivered.

«Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out My fury on it in blood, and cut off from it man and beast,

even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live,» says the Lord GOD, «they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.»

For thus says the Lord GOD: «How much more it shall be when I send My four severe judgments on Jerusalem--the sword and famine and wild beasts and pestilence--to cut off man and beast from it?

Yet behold, there shall be left in it a remnant who will be brought out, both sons and daughters; surely they will come out to you, and you will see their ways and their doings. Then you will be comforted concerning the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, all that I have brought upon it.

And they will comfort you, when you see their ways and their doings; and you shall know that I have done nothing without cause that I have done in it,» says the Lord GOD.