Ezekiel 5

Ezekiel 5:1

And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber’s razor and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.

To fore-signify that variety of miserable desolation which shall come upon Jerusalem, take thee a sharp knife, even a barber’s razor, and therewith cause all the hair of thy head and beard to be shaven off: the hairs of thy head and beard represent the numerous inhabitants of Jerusalem: all they shall be cut, by several ways of destruction; and therefore take thy balances, and weigh thy hair into three equal parts.

Ezekiel 5:2

Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.

One third part shalt thou burn with fire; to show the extremity of that calamity, which a third part of thy inhabitants shall endure, in pestilence and famine, in the siege: another third part, thou shalt smite about with a knife; to show that a third part of them shall fall by the sword: and one other third part of it, thou shalt scatter in the wind; to signify their dispersion in the captivity, which shall be attended also with much cruelty afterwards. See verse 12.

Ezekiel 5:3

Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts.

But thou shalt take up a few of those hairs out of this division,

Ezekiel 5:4

Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.

Then, afterwards, take of them again, which thou hadst reserved in thy skirts, and cast them into the midst of the fire; to signify, that those remainders shall put themselves into miserable affliction, and at last shall bring an utter destruction to all the house of Israel.

Ezekiel 5:16

I will send upon them the evil arrows of famine.

I will send a grievous famine upon them, which, like unto deadly arrows, shall pierce through their souls.