1 “And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, ^aand pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair.  ‡

2 ^aYou shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of ^bthe city, when ^cthe 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 ^dthem.  ‡

4 Then take some of them again and ^athrow 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.  ‡

5 “Thus says the Lord God: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her.