1. “Now, human, take a sharp sword, and use it like a barber’s razor to shave your head and beard. Then take scales and weigh and divide the hair.
2. Burn one-third with fire in the middle of the city when the days of the attack on Jerusalem are over. Then take one-third and cut it up with the knife all around the city. And scatter one-third to the wind. This is how I will chase them with a sword.
3. Also take a few of these hairs and tie them in the folds of your clothes.
4. Take a few more and throw them into the fire and burn them up. From there a fire will spread to all the people of Israel.
5. “This is what the Lord God says: This is Jerusalem. I have put her at the center of the nations with countries all around her.
6. But she has refused to obey my laws and has been more evil than the nations. She has refused to obey my rules, even more than nations around her. The people of Jerusalem have rejected my laws and have not lived by my rules.
7. “So this is what the Lord God says: You have caused more trouble than the nations around you. You have not followed my rules or obeyed my laws. You have not even obeyed the laws of the nations around you.
8. “So this is what the Lord God says: I myself am against you, and I will punish you as the nations watch.
9. I will do things among you that I have not done before and that I will never do anything like again, because you do the things I hate.