Ezekiel 5 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

"And you, son of man — take a sharp blade. Use it like a barber's razor and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take scales for weighing and divide the hair into three parts."

"A third you will burn in the fire at the center of the city when the days of the siege are complete. Then take a third and strike it with the blade all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind — for I will draw a sword to chase after them."

"But take a small number from those and tuck them into the folds of your robe."

"And from those, take some more and throw them into the fire and let them burn. From there, a fire will spread to the entire house of Israel."

"This is what the Lord Yahweh says: This is Jerusalem. I placed her at the center of the nations, with countries all around her."

"But she rebelled against my judgments with more wickedness than the nations, and against my instructions more than the countries surrounding her. She rejected my judgments and refused to live by my instructions."

"Therefore this is what the Lord Yahweh says: Because you have been more turbulent than the nations around you — you have not lived by my instructions, you have not followed my judgments, you have not even lived up to the standards of the nations surrounding you — "

" — therefore this is what the Lord Yahweh says: Look — even I am against you. I myself will carry out judgments against you in plain sight of the nations."

"I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again — all because of your disgusting practices."

"Because of this, parents among you will eat their own children, and children will eat their parents. I will execute judgment against you and scatter everyone who is left to every direction of the wind."

"Therefore — as I live, declares the Lord Yahweh — because you defiled my sacred place with all your vile images and disgusting practices, I myself will cut you down. My eye will not spare you, and I will show no compassion."

"A third of you will die by plague and waste away from famine inside the city. A third will fall by the blade outside your walls. And a third I will scatter to every wind and pursue with a drawn sword."

"Then my anger will be spent, and I will satisfy my fury against them and be at rest. And they will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my fierce devotion — when I have finished pouring out my fury on them."

"I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by."

"You will become a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I carry out judgment against you in anger, in fury, and with furious punishments. I, Yahweh, have spoken."

"When I send the deadly arrows of famine against you — arrows meant to destroy — I will send them to destroy you. I will pile famine upon you and cut off your supply of food."

"I will send famine and savage beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, Yahweh, have spoken."