1. ⌊The Lord said,⌋ “Son of man, take a sharp blade, and use it as a barber’s razor to shave your head and beard. Take scales to weigh your hair and divide it ⌊into three even parts⌋.
2. When the blockade is over, burn one-third of your hair in a fire in the middle of the city. Take another third, and cut it up with a blade around the city. Then scatter the remaining third to the wind, and I will draw a sword and go after it.
3. Take a few strands of hair, and wrap them in the hem of your clothes.
4. Later, take some of them, and throw them in a fire and burn them up. From there a fire will spread throughout the whole nation of Israel.
5. “This is what the Almighty Lord says: This is Jerusalem! I have placed it in the center of the nations with countries all around it.
6. The people of Jerusalem have rebelled against my rules and my laws more than the surrounding nations. They have rejected my rules, and they don’t live by my laws.
7. “So this is what the Almighty Lord says: ⌊People of Jerusalem,⌋ you have caused more trouble than the nations around you. You haven’t lived by my laws or obeyed my rules. You haven’t even lived up to the standards of the nations around you.
8. “So this is what the Almighty Lord says: I, too, am against you, and I will punish you in front of the nations.
9. Because of all the detestable things that you do, I will do things to you that I have never done before and will never do again.