Ezekiel 5:1

A Sword Against Jerusalem

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.

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

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.

6 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.’

7 Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have¹ multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes ^anor kept My judgments, nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you’—

8 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.

9 ^aAnd 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.

10 Therefore fathers ^ashall 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 ^bscatter to all the winds.

11 ‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have ^adefiled My sanctuary with all your ^bdetestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; ^cMy eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity.

12 ^aOne-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 ^bI will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after ^cthem.

13 ‘Thus shall My anger ^abe spent, and I will ^bcause My fury to rest upon them, ^cand I will be avenged; ^dand they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them.

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

15 ‘So¹ it shall be a ^areproach, a taunt, a ^blesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in ^cfurious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken.

16 When I ^asend 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 ^bsupply of bread.

17 So I will send against you famine and ^awild beasts, and they will bereave you. ^bPestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

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Ezekiel 5:1-4

Take thee a sharp knife - Among the Israelites, and indeed among most ancient nations, there were very few edge-tools. The sword was the chief; and this was used as a knife, a razor, etc., according to its different length and sharpness. It is likely that only one kind of instrument is here intended; a knife or short sword, to be employed as a razor.

Here is a new emblem produced, in order to mark out the coming evils.

1.The prophet represents the Jewish nation.

2.His hair, the people.

3.The razor, the Chaldeans.

4.The cutting the beard and hair, the calamities, sorrows, and disgrace coming upon the people. Cutting off the hair was a sign of mourning; see on Jeremiah 45:5 (note); Jeremiah 48:37 (note); and also a sign of great disgrace; see II Samuel 10:4.

5.He is ordered to divide the hair, II Samuel 10:2, into three equal parts, to intimate the different degrees and kinds of punishment which should fall upon the people.

6.The balances, II Samuel 10:1, were to represent the Divine justice, and the exactness with which God' s judgments should be distributed among the offenders.

7.This hair, divided into three parts, is to be disposed of thus:

1. A third part is to be burnt in the midst of the city, to show that so many should perish by famine and pestilence during the siege.

2. Another third part he was to cut in small portions about the city, (that figure which he had pourtrayed upon the brick), to signify those who should perish in different sorties, and in defending the walls.

3. And the remaining third part he was to scatter in the wind, to point out those who should be driven into captivity. And,

4. The sword following them was intended to show that their lives should be at the will of their captors, and that many of them should perish by the sword in their dispersions.

5. The few hairs which he was to take in his skirts, II Samuel 10:3, was intended to represent those few Jews that should be left in the land under Gedaliah, after the taking of the city.

6. The throwing a part of these last into the fire, II Samuel 10:4, was intended to show the miseries that these suffered in Judea, in Egypt, and finally in their being also carried away into Babylon on the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar. See these transactions particularly pointed out in the notes on Jeremiah, chapters 40, 41, 42. Some think that this prophecy may refer to the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes.

**Other Adam Clarke entries containing Ezekiel 5:1:**

Ezekiel 5:12

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Ezekiel 5:2 >>

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