Ezekiel 5 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
593 to 592 BC, in the years just before the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC
Location
The exile community in Babylonia, with the message aimed at Jerusalem far to the west
Audience
Judean exiles in Babylonia, and by extension the population still living in Jerusalem
Situation
Ezekiel shaves his head and beard with a sword, weighs the hair and divides it in three, burning one part, striking one with the sword and scattering the last to the wind, with a few strands tucked into his clothing. The acted sign is then explained as the fate of Jerusalem's population by plague, war and exile.
Key Background
For a priest, shaving the head and beard was forbidden, so the act itself announces that ordinary religious life has already collapsed. Using a sword as a razor turns a grooming tool into a weapon and makes the point that the coming losses come by conquest. The curses of plague, sword, famine and wild animals form a set formula found in Hebrew covenant texts and in Assyrian treaty documents alike, where a vassal who broke faith with his overlord invoked exactly this catalogue of disasters on himself.
"And you, of — take a Use it like a barber's razor and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take for and divide the hair into three parts."
"A you will in the at the center of the city when the days of the are complete. Then take a and strike it with the blade all around the city. And a to the — for I will draw a sword to chase after them."
"But take a small number from those and tuck them into the of
"And from those, take some more and throw them into the fire and let them burn. From there, a fire will spread to the entire of
"This is what the says: This is Jerusalem. I placed her at the of the with countries all around her."
"But she rebelled against my with more wickedness than the nations, and against my more than the countries surrounding her. She rejected my and refused to live by my
"Therefore this is what the Lord Yahweh says: Because you have been more than the nations around you — you have not lived by my instructions, you have not followed my judgments, you have not even lived up to the standards of the nations surrounding you — "
" — therefore this is what the Lord Yahweh says: Look — even I am you. I myself will carry out judgments you in plain sight of the nations."
"I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again — all because of your
"Because of this, among you will their own and will their I will execute judgment against you and everyone who is left to every direction of the wind."
"So, as surely as I declares the Lord Yahweh: because you defiled the for me with all your and disgusting practices, I myself will cut you down. My eye will not spare you, and I will show no compassion."
"A third of you will die by and waste away from famine inside the city. A third will fall by the blade outside your walls. And a third I will scatter to every wind and pursue with a
"Then my will be and I will satisfy my fury against them and be at rest. And they will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my — when I have finished pouring out my fury on them."
"I will make you a and a among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by."
"You will become a and a to the nations around you, when I carry out judgment against you in anger, in fury, and with furious punishments. I, Yahweh, have spoken."
"When I send the of against you — arrows meant to destroy — I will send them to destroy you. I will pile upon you and cut off your of
"I will send famine and against you, and they will you Plague and will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, Yahweh, have spoken."