Ezekiel 5 KJV
God's Razor of Judgment
Ezekiel Chapter 5: God's Razor of Judgment
Ezekiel's commanded use of a barber's razor directly violates the Levitical ban on priests shaving their heads or beards (Lev 21:5), demonstrating that the coming judgment suspends even the holiness regulations that define his own identity.
1nd thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barberโs razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.
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.
3 Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts.
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.
5 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.
6 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.
7 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;
8 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.
9 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.
10 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.
11 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.
12 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.
13 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.
14 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.
15 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.
16 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:
17 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.
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Did You Know?
Ezekiel's commanded use of a barber's razor directly violates the Levitical ban on priests shaving their heads or beards (Lev 21:5), demonstrating that the coming judgment suspends even the holiness regulations that define his own identity.
The small portion of hair concealed in his garment and later burned (Ezek 5:3-4) represents survivors who initially escape the siege yet face secondary judgment, subverting any expectation of automatic protection for a faithful remnant.
The tripartite division of hair by fire, sword, and wind precisely reenacts the covenant curses of Leviticus 26, positioning Ezekiel as an enforcer of Deuteronomic theology rather than merely predicting future events.
The phrase 'barber's razor' deliberately recalls Isaiah 7:20, where Assyria is depicted as Yahweh's razor against Judah, thereby framing the Babylonian invasion as the continuation of an established prophetic motif of foreign empires as divine tools.
Judgment is shown to originate from within the city itself (Ezek 5:4), with a portion of the hair burned 'in the midst of the city,' underscoring the theological claim that the sanctuary, not foreign armies alone, becomes the source of purifying wrath.
Commentary & Study Notes Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871) ยท Public Domain knife... razor โ the sword of the foe (compare Isa 7:20). This vision implies even severer judgments than the Egyptian afflictions foreshadowed in the former, for their guilt was gโฆ
Classic verse-by-verse commentary on Ezekiel 5 from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871). Covers: Vision of cutting the hairs, and the calamities foreshadowed thereby.
- 1
- knife... razor โ the sword of the foe (compare Isa 7:20). This vision implies even severer judgments than the Egyptian afflictions foreshadowed in the former, for their guilt was greater than that of their forefathers. thine head โ as representative of the Jews. The whole hair being shaven off was significant of severe and humiliating (2Sa 10:4, 5) treatment. Especially in the case of a priest; for priests (Le 21:5) were forbidden "to make baldness on their head," their hair being the token of consecration; hereby it was intimated that the ceremonial must give place to the moral. balances โ implying the just discrimination with which Jehovah weighs out the portion of punishment "divided," that is, allotted to each: the "hairs" are the Jews: the divine scales do not allow even one hair to escape accurate weighing (compare Mt 10:30).
- 2
- Three classes are described. The sword was to destroy one third of the people; famine and plague another third ("fire" in Eze 5:2 being explained in Eze 5:12 to mean pestilence and famine); that which remained was to be scattered among the nations. A few only of the last portion were to escape, symbolized by the hairs bound in Ezekiel's skirts (Eze 5:3; Jer 40:6; 52:16). Even of these some were to be thrown into the fiery ordeal again (Eze 5:4; Jer 41:1, 2, &c.; Jer 44:14, &c.). The "skirts" being able to contain but few express that extreme limit to which God's goodness can reach.
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