# Ezekiel 05 📖: The Sign of the Shaved Hair [[📚 Explore the Bible Books]] [[-Ezekiel Overview]] | [[Ezekiel 04]] | [[Ezekiel 06]] > [!info] Table of Contents > [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]] > [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]] > [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]] > [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]] > [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]] > [[#🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application]] > [[#💬 Discussion Questions]] > [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]] > [[#🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference]] > [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]] > [[#📂 Internal Notes]] ## 📜 Scripture Text (NET) (The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005) [[#Verse 01.]] “As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor. Shave off some of the hair from your head and your beard. Then take scales and divide up the hair you cut off.  [[#Verse 02.]] Burn a third of it in the fire inside the city when the days of your siege are completed. Take a third and slash it with a sword all around the city. Scatter a third to the wind, and I will unleash a sword behind them.  [[#Verse 03.]] But take a few strands of hair from those and tie them in the ends of your garment.  [[#Verse 04.]] Again, take more of them and throw them into the fire, and burn them up. From there a fire will spread to all the house of Israel. [[#Verse 05.]] “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem; I placed her in the center of the nations with countries all around her.  [[#Verse 06.]] Then she defied my regulations and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations and the countries around her. Indeed, they have rejected my regulations, and they do not follow my statutes. [[#Verse 07.]] “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you are more arrogant than the nations around you, you have not followed my statutes and have not carried out my regulations. You have not even carried out the regulations of the nations around you! [[#Verse 08.]] “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I—even I—am against you, and I will execute judgment among you while the nations watch.  [[#Verse 09.]] I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again because of all your abominable practices.  [[#Verse 10.]] Therefore, fathers will eat their sons within you, Jerusalem, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you, and I will scatter any survivors to the winds. [[#Verse 11.]] “Therefore, as surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, because you defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominable practices, I will withdraw; my eye will not pity you, nor will I spare you.  [[#Verse 12.]] A third of your people will die of plague or be overcome by the famine within you. A third of your people will fall by the sword surrounding you, and a third I will scatter to the winds. I will unleash a sword behind them.  [[#Verse 13.]] Then my anger will be fully vented; I will exhaust my rage on them, and I will be appeased. Then they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my jealousy when I have fully vented my rage against them. [[#Verse 14.]] “I will make you desolate and an object of scorn among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by.  [[#Verse 15.]] You will be an object of scorn and taunting, a prime example of destruction among the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger and raging fury. I, the Lord, have spoken!  [[#Verse 16.]] I will shoot against them deadly, destructive arrows of famine, which I will shoot to destroy you. I will prolong a famine on you and will remove the bread supply.  [[#Verse 17.]] I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will take your children from you. Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!” ## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary ###### Overall. ###### Verse 01. ###### Verse 02. ###### Verse 03. ###### Verse 04. ###### Verse 05. ###### Verse 06. ###### Verse 07. ###### Verse 08. ###### Verse 09. ###### Verse 10. ###### Verse 11. ###### Verse 12. ###### Verse 13. ###### Verse 14. ###### Verse 15. ###### Verse 16. ###### Verse 17. ## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights 1. Ezekiel used a sharp sword as a barber's razor (5:1), tying the sign to coming warfare. 2. Shaving the head and beard was a sign of mourning and humiliation in the ancient world (Isaiah 7:20; 2 Samuel 10:4-5). 3. Priests were forbidden to shave their heads or the edges of their beards (Leviticus 21:5), which made this sign even more shocking for a priest. 4. The hair was divided into thirds: one burned, one struck with the sword, and one scattered to the wind (5:2). God explains each third in 5:12. 5. A few hairs tucked into his garment (5:3) represented a small remnant, and even some of those were burned. 6. God says Jerusalem was placed in the center of the nations (5:5). 7. Jerusalem had been more wicked than the nations around her (5:6-7). 8. The terrible warning about parents eating children (5:10) echoes Deuteronomy 28:53 and is described as fulfilled in Lamentations 4:10. 9. Famine, wild beasts, plague, and sword (5:17) are the same instruments of judgment named in the covenant curses of Leviticus 26. 10. The phrase "I, the Lord, have spoken" closes several sections in this chapter (5:13, 15, 17). ## 🧠 Chapter Summary > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter Christ is the One who preserves His remnant. A few hairs were tucked safely into Ezekiel's garment (5:3), and Jesus promises that no one will snatch His sheep out of His hand (John 10:28). ## 🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 💬 Discussion Questions 1. God set Jerusalem in the center of the nations to be a light (5:5-6). How does greater privilege bring greater responsibility? 2. The judgments in this chapter echo the covenant warnings in Leviticus 26. Why does it matter that God does exactly what He said He would do? 3. Even here, a few hairs are kept safe (5:3). Where do you see God's mercy in the middle of hard consequences? ## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember - 📖 verses 1-2: Ezekiel shaves his head and beard and divides the hair into thirds. - 📖 verse 5: Jerusalem was set in the center of the nations. - 📖 verse 13: When God's anger is spent, they will know that He has spoken. ## 🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference - 🔗 [[Leviticus 26#Verse 25.|Leviticus 26:25-33]] - The covenant warnings of sword, plague, and scattering. - 🔗 [[Deuteronomy 28#Verse 64.|Deuteronomy 28:64]] - The Lord will scatter you among the nations. - 🔗 [[Isaiah 07#Verse 20.|Isaiah 7:20]] - The Lord will shave with a razor hired beyond the River. - 🔗 [[Lamentations 04#Verse 10.|Lamentations 4:10]] - The horrors of the siege described. - 🔗 [[John 10#Verse 28.|John 10:28]] - No one will snatch them from My hand. ## 🙏 Devotional Reflection 📝 SOAP: [[Ezekiel 05 - SOAP|If You Make Your Bed…]] ## 📂 Internal Notes