| International Standard Version | Holman Christian Standard Bible |
| 1"Now as for you, Son of Man, you are to go find a sharp sword and use it like a barber's razor. You are to cut your hair and beard. Then you are to take a weighing scale and divide your shaved hair into three parts. | 1Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as you would a barber's razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair. |
| 2You are to burn a third of it in the middle of the city when you've finished your siege. Next, you are to take another third of it and beat it with your sword. Last, you are to scatter the remaining third to the wind, after which I'll unsheathe my sword and pursue them. | 2You are to burn up a third of it in the city when the days of the siege have ended; you are to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind, for I will draw a sword to chase after them. |
| 3You are to preserve a few strands of hair and hide them in the folds of your garment. | 3But you are to take a few strands from the hair and secure them in the folds of your robe. |
| 4Then you are to take a few strands, throw them in the fire, and incinerate them. A fire will proceed to the house of Israel from there." | 4Take some more of them, throw them into the fire, and burn them in it. A fire will spread from it to the whole house of Israel." |
| 5"This is what the Lord GOD says, 'This is Jerusalem. I placed her in the center of nations, with many nations surrounding her. | 5This is what the Lord GOD says: I have set this Jerusalem in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. |
| 6But she rebelled against my ordinances and my statutes. She practiced more evil than all the nations and territories around her. They rejected my ordinances and didn't live by my statutes.' | 6But she has rebelled against My ordinances with more wickedness than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that surround her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes." |
| 7"Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: 'Because you're more disrespectful than the nations that surround you, you didn't follow my statutes or follow my ordinances. You didn't even follow the ordinances of the surrounding nations!' | 7Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you have been more insubordinate than the nations around you--you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances; you have not even kept the ordinances of the nations around you-- |
| 8"Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: 'Watch out! I—that's right, even I—am against you. I'll carry out my sentence among you right in front of the nations. | 8therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: See, I am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments within you in the sight of the nations. |
| 9In fact, I'm going to do what I've never done before and what I'll never again do, because of all of your loathsome behavior: | 9Because of all your detestable practices, I will do to you what I have never done before and what I will never do again. |
| 10Fathers will eat their children in your midst. After this, your sons will eat their fathers as I carry out my sentence against you and scatter your survivors to the winds!' | 10As a result, fathers will eat their sons within Jerusalem, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your survivors to every direction of the wind." |
| 11"Therefore, as sure as I live," declares the Lord GOD, "because you've defiled my sanctuary with every loathsome thing and every abomination, I'll restrain myself, and I'll show neither pity nor compassion. | 11Therefore, as I live"--this is the declaration of the Lord GOD--"I am going to cut you off and show you no pity, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable practices and abominations. Yes, I will not spare you. |
| 12A third of you will die by pestilence, starving because of the famine in your midst. Another third will die violently by the violence of war around you. The final third I'll scatter to the wind as I unsheathe my sword to pursue them. | 12A third of your people will die by plague and be consumed by famine within you; a third will fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter a third to every direction of the wind, and I will draw a sword to chase after them. |
| 13"Only then will I stop being angry—my burning in anger. Then they'll know that I've spoken out in my arduous anger. Only then will my burning anger against them be exhausted. | 13When My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath on them, I will be appeased. Then after I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in My jealousy." |
| 14I'm also going to turn you into a waste and an object of insult among the nations that surround you and in front of every person who passes by. | 14I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by. |
| 15As a result, Jerusalem will become an insult, an object of taunt, an example of chastisement, and a useless waste to all the nations that surround you when I carry out my sentence against you in my anger, my burning rage, and my burning rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken it. | 15So you will be a disgrace and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and furious rebukes. I, Yahweh, have spoken. |
| 16I'll send arrows of severe famine in their direction, meant for destruction, which I'll shoot, intending to destroy them. I'll make you have more and more famines that will attack you, and I'll disrupt your source of food. | 16When I shoot deadly arrows of famine at them, arrows for destruction that I will send to destroy you, inhabitants of Jerusalem, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of bread. |
| 17"I'll send famine and wild beasts against you that will rob you of your children. Pestilence and bloodshed will devastate you when I'll declare war on you. I, the LORD, have spoken." | 17I will send famine and dangerous animals against you. They will leave you childless, Jerusalem. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, Yahweh, have spoken." |
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