BOOK 26 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Ezekiel 5

Ezekiel book home•Chapter 5 of 48•17 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

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Ezekiel 5 Overview

Ezekiel shaves his head and beard with a sword, divides the hair into thirds, and uses it to portray Jerusalem’s population: death by pestilence and famine, death by the sword, scattering to the nations, and only a small remnant preserved. The LORD explains the judgment as the result of extraordinary rebellion.

EzekielBook

5Chapter

17Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Ezekiel 5

Coming from

Ezekiel performs sign-acts portraying Jerusalem’s coming siege: he draws the city on a tile, lies on his sides for assigned periods connected with Israel and Judah’s iniquity, measures scarce food and water, and cooks bread in a way that symbolizes defilement among the nations.

In this chapter

Leads into

Ezekiel prophesies against the mountains of Israel because high places, altars, idols, and sun images have filled the land. The LORD announces destruction of these worship sites, yet a remnant among the nations will remember Him, loathe their idolatry, and know that He is the LORD.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Shaving the head and beard was a humiliating sign, and using a sword as the razor intensifies the message. The divided hair makes the coming outcomes visible: destruction inside the city, violence around it, and dispersion beyond it.

The small number of hairs bound in Ezekiel’s skirts introduces the remnant theme, but even some of those hairs are burned. Preservation is real, yet the sign does not let the audience assume that belonging to a remnant removes all temporal discipline.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Greater privilege brings serious accountability

Jerusalem had received God’s statutes yet behaved worse than surrounding nations.

Judgment can fall in different forms within the same crisis

Famine, pestilence, sword, and scattering are all parts of the announced catastrophe.

God preserves a remnant even in severe judgment

A small number of hairs are deliberately kept from the larger destruction.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Deuteronomy 28:53-57

Ezekiel’s reference to parents and children consuming one another reflects the horrifying siege curse warned in the law.

Jeremiah 15:2

Jeremiah similarly describes different appointed outcomes such as death, sword, famine, and captivity.

Romans 11:5

Paul later speaks of a remnant according to grace; Ezekiel’s remnant theme belongs first to Israel’s historical preservation and should not be collapsed into Paul’s argument, but the wider biblical pattern is important.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not confuse the remnant sign with a statement that everyone physically preserved was eternally saved.

The chapter addresses survival, judgment, and dispersion in Israel’s national history.

Do not treat the shocking siege language as divine cruelty detached from context.

Ezekiel repeatedly grounds the judgment in long-standing covenant rebellion after abundant warning.

Read Ezekiel 5 watching for…

the sword used as a razor

the three portions of hair

the few hairs preserved in the skirt

the reasons given for Jerusalem’s judgment

the repeated emphasis that the nations will witness the consequences

Chapter outline3 sections

1-4Ezekiel divides shaved hair into thirds as a sign and keeps a small remnant 5-12Jerusalem’s rebellion brings famine, pestilence, sword, and scattering 13-17The LORD’s fury will be accomplished and Jerusalem will become a reproach among the nations

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

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.

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

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.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.

And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them.

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you;

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.

And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.

Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.

Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.

A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.

Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them.

Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by.

So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it.

When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:

So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it.