Eze 5:1 | KingComments | STEP | Ezekiel is even more personally involved in the judgments he is to announce. He must shave off his head hair and beard with a sharp sword ( ). This is a great reproach to him (cf. ; ; ) and is even forbidden to a priest ( ; ). That he must use a sharp sword as a razor shows that this is an act that symbolically represents the judgment of God ( ; ). Then he must take a scale and divide the hair. This indicates a very precise weighing, for hair is so light that it can hardly be weighed. That precise weighing means that each one gets the punishment he deserves, no more and no less. God punishes perfectly justly ( ). He is to divide the hair into three heaps ( ). With each of those heaps he is to do something: 1. One-third of the hair he is to lay “at the center of the city” – that is in the center of the inscribing he made on the brick ( ) – and burn it with fire. The LORD adds that he is to do this “when the days of the siege are completed”. 2. The next third of hair he is to take and “strike [it] with the sword all around the city”. 3. The last third he must “scatter to the wind”. Those hairs are carried everywhere. Judgment does not come on all the hair ( ). Ezekiel is to take a few hairs, “a few in number”, and bind them in the edges of his robes. There are also hairs that Ezekiel is to throw directly into the fire to burn them in the fire ( ). These are not burned only after the days of the siege. From this part “a fire will spread to all the house of Israel”, that is, it will burn all that is left.

‏ Ezekiel 5:1

Shaving and Dividing Hair

Ezekiel is even more personally involved in the judgments he is to announce. He must shave off his head hair and beard with a sharp sword (Eze 5:1). This is a great reproach to him (cf. 2Sam 10:4; 1Chr 19:4; Neh 13:25) and is even forbidden to a priest (Lev 21:5; Eze 44:20). That he must use a sharp sword as a razor shows that this is an act that symbolically represents the judgment of God (Deu 32:41; Isa 7:20).

Then he must take a scale and divide the hair. This indicates a very precise weighing, for hair is so light that it can hardly be weighed. That precise weighing means that each one gets the punishment he deserves, no more and no less. God punishes perfectly justly (Rev 20:12-13).

He is to divide the hair into three heaps (Eze 5:2). With each of those heaps he is to do something:

1. One-third of the hair he is to lay “at the center of the city” – that is in the center of the inscribing he made on the brick (Eze 4:1) – and burn it with fire. The LORD adds that he is to do this “when the days of the siege are completed”.

2. The next third of hair he is to take and “strike [it] with the sword all around the city”.

3. The last third he must “scatter to the wind”. Those hairs are carried everywhere.

Judgment does not come on all the hair (Eze 5:3). Ezekiel is to take a few hairs, “a few in number”, and bind them in the edges of his robes. There are also hairs that Ezekiel is to throw directly into the fire to burn them in the fire (Eze 5:4). These are not burned only after the days of the siege. From this part “a fire will spread to all the house of Israel”, that is, it will burn all that is left.