1. ‘Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor to shave your head and your beard. Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair.
2. When the days of your siege come to an end, burn a third of the hair inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind. For I will pursue them with drawn sword.
3. But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment.
4. Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to all Israel.
5. ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: this is Jerusalem, which I have set in the centre of the nations, with countries all around her.
6. Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees.
7. ‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: you have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you.
8. ‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations.
9. Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.
10. Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds.