Ezekiel 5:1

“As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair.

Majority Standard Bible

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

2When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them.

Read all of Ezekiel 5

Cross References

Leviticus 21:5Priests must not make bald spots on their heads, shave off the edges of their beards, or make cuts in their bodies.

Jeremiah 19:1This is what the LORD says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take some of the elders of the people and leaders of the priests,

Ezekiel 44:20They must not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but must carefully trim their hair.

Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 5:1

In this chapter we have a further, and no less terrible, denunciation of the judgments of God, which were coming with all speed and force upon the Jewish nation, which would utterly ruin it; for when God judges he will overcome. This destruction of Judah and Jerusalem is here, I. Represented by a sign, the cutting, and burning, and scattering of hair, ver. 1-4 . II. That sign is expounded, and applied to Jerusalem. 1. Sin is charged upon Jerusalem as the cause of this desolation—contempt of God's law ( ver. 5-7 )… Read the whole commentary →

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