Ezekiel Chapter 5 – When God Cuts Hair
(It’s About Judgment, Pain, and Hard Truths)
Okay so, here we are again walking through Ezekiel, and whew—chapter 5 comes in strong. Like, real strong. This is one of those chapters where you kinda wish the message was more soft and comforting or maybe like a sweet Psalm to calm the heart, but nah, Ezekiel 5 is like a sword cutting through pretense. It’s heavy. It’s got imagery that sticks with you, strange prophetic actions that make you tilt your head and wonder what’s going on, and a message that hits you right in the gut, especially if you take time to sit with it.
And right from the start, let’s just say: if Ezekiel chapter 4 made you uncomfortable (with baking bread over dung and laying on one side for hundreds of days), then chapter 5 is gonna challenge you even more. Like God is not playing. He's dead serious. He’s heartbroken, and angry, and full of holy fire, and He's trying to show the people, not just tell 'em, what’s about to go down if they don’t wake up.
So buckle in, let’s unpack this wild, intense chapter slowly, and with some real honesty.
✂️ A Sword, Some Hair, and a Sharp Lesson (verses 1–4)
So the chapter opens with this really strange command from God to Ezekiel. He tells him, “Take a sharp sword and use it like a barber’s razor to shave your head and beard.”
Hold up, wait—what??
Now in ancient Israelite culture, shaving the head and beard wasn’t just a random grooming choice, it was deeply symbolic. A shaved head or beard could mean mourning, disgrace, or even punishment. Especially for a priest or prophet—it was a big deal. So when God tells Ezekiel to do this, He’s making Ezekiel embody humiliation and devastation. It’s like Ezekiel becomes a living symbol of what's gonna happen to Jerusalem.
But that’s just the beginning. After shaving, God tells him to divide the hair into thirds:
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One third is to be burned inside the city
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Another third to be struck with the sword all around
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And the last third to be scattered to the wind
And then God says, “I will unsheathe a sword after them.”
Like dang. That’s some powerful imagery. The hair represents the people of Jerusalem—God’s own chosen people—and He’s about to show what’s going to happen to them. Some will die from famine and fire inside the city. Others will die by the sword outside its walls. And the rest—those who escape—will be scattered to the nations, chased by even more judgment.
Now it’s real important not to read this with just a cold intellectual lens. Like, this is devastating. This is a holy God saying, "Enough. You have broken covenant, ignored My warnings, worshipped idols, shed blood, and mocked My prophets—and now judgment is here."
Ezekiel even takes a few hairs and tucks them into his robe, then throws some into the fire. That part might seem small but it speaks so loud—there’ll be a remnant, a small group God preserves, but even from them, more fire comes. It's hard, it's rough, but it's honest.
💔 Jerusalem – The City That Should Have Known Better (verses 5–6)
In verses 5 and 6, God speaks plainly through Ezekiel. No more metaphors or visuals here. He says something that makes you pause:
“This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.”
You feel that? God placed Jerusalem in a central position—not just geographically but spiritually too. She was supposed to be a light to the nations, a witness to the glory and goodness and justice of Yahweh. But instead, God says, she rebelled even more than the nations around her. The ones who didn’t even know His law didn’t act as corrupt as she did.
That should shake us up a little.
This is God saying, “You had My presence. You had My Word. You had My covenant. You had everything… and you still turned away.”
And honestly, doesn’t that hit home? Like, how often do we, the ones who know better, end up falling into deeper sin than folks who don’t even claim to know God? Having access to truth doesn’t guarantee obedience—it makes disobedience even more tragic.
It’s like God’s saying, “You weren’t just failing—you were failing on purpose, with full knowledge, and zero repentance.” That’s not just disobedience—it’s betrayal. And God feels it deep.
🔥 Judgment Unleashed (verses 7–12)
Okay, now this is the core of the chapter, and I’m not gonna sugarcoat it—it’s brutal. It’s hard to read. God lays out the full scope of judgment that’s about to fall.
Because Jerusalem rejected God’s laws, and did worse than the surrounding nations (who didn’t even have the law), the Lord says:
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Parents will eat their children, and children their parents… (verse 10)
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One third will die from plague and famine
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One third will fall by the sword
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One third will be scattered to the wind, pursued by the sword
It’s horrifying. It’s like all the horror stories of war and siege and starvation and desperation rolled into one. And it actually happened—when Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem, it was a slow, brutal collapse of the city. People starved. Families turned against each other. Blood soaked the streets. This ain’t symbolic—it’s historical. And terrifying.
But here’s something we can’t miss—even in judgment, God’s not being random or impulsive. He’s not losing His temper like some angry human. He’s acting in righteousness and justice, in response to generations of rebellion and corruption.
Like when we read these verses, the natural instinct might be to say, “Whoa, God, that’s too much!” But when you look at what the people were doing—sacrificing their children to idols, oppressing the poor, shedding innocent blood, mocking the truth—suddenly it’s not about God being too harsh, it’s about us finally realizing just how serious sin really is.
💨 Scattering and Shame Before the Nations (verses 13–17)
In the closing verses, the Lord says that His anger will come to an end only after judgment is carried out. Not before. Not until His wrath is satisfied and justice is done. And He says something chilling in verse 13:
“Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged.”
That line really hits. Like, God’s not looking for vengeance like a petty tyrant—He’s demanding justice like a holy and broken-hearted Creator whose people have spat in His face for generations.
Then God says Jerusalem will become a mockery to the nations, a warning and a lesson. People will see her destruction and tremble. That’s sobering. The city that was supposed to be the shining example of God's grace will become a cautionary tale.
And there’s more—wild beasts, famine, plague, bloodshed. All of it part of God’s judgment. And it’s like, wow, it just keeps coming, one wave after another. But don’t miss the deeper truth here: this is what happens when a people turn so far from God for so long that judgment becomes the only path left.
🧠 Heart Thoughts and Real Life Reflection
Now after reading all this, some folks might wanna shut the Bible and walk away, saying, “That’s too much. That ain’t the loving God I know.” But here’s the thing: it is the loving God you know. And maybe part of love is saying the hard thing, the painful thing, the thing nobody wants to hear but everybody needs to.
Because if God didn’t care, He would’ve let Israel destroy themselves ages ago. But He kept warning, sending prophets, giving time, pleading through tears. And still—they chose rebellion. So now, comes judgment. And it hurts not because God is cruel, but because sin is cruel and God's holiness can't ignore it.
And before we point fingers at ancient Jerusalem, we gotta ask ourselves:
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Where have we become desensitized to sin?
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Are we grieving over injustice or just scrolling past it?
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Have we traded the presence of God for convenience, idols, and false peace?
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Do we hear His Word and still go do what we want, thinking grace will cover us regardless?
Ezekiel 5 ain’t just history—it’s a mirror. And sometimes that mirror reveals stuff in us we’d rather not see. But God loves us too much to leave us deceived.
🙏 What Do We Do With This?
So yeah, this chapter’s heavy. But weighty things often carry deep truths. If you’ve read this far, maybe you’re feeling the sting too. That’s okay. That’s what it’s supposed to do. It’s supposed to shake us awake.
Here’s some thoughts on how to respond:
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Repent genuinely – not out of fear, but out of heartbreak for how far we’ve strayed.
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Pray for our churches and cities – because judgment isn’t just an Old Testament thing. God still calls for holiness.
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Seek truth over comfort – don’t avoid hard passages. Sometimes they’re the ones that heal us the most deeply.
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Live humbly and obediently – grace isn’t a license to ignore God’s commands. It’s a gift meant to transform our hearts.
📝 Final Words: When the Fire Falls, There’s Still Hope in the Ashes
Ezekiel 5 ends on a harsh note, but remember, the story ain’t over. God’s judgment is never the final chapter—it’s the hard middle that makes way for redemption. The remnant preserved in Ezekiel’s robe? That’s hope. That’s the seed of restoration. That’s the thread of mercy even in wrath.
So let this chapter stir you. Let it lead you not to despair but to deeper reverence. Let it call you back to a holy fear of God—a fear rooted not in terror, but in awe of who He is and how serious He takes justice, truth, and love.
If we tremble now, maybe we won’t have to tremble later. If we turn now, maybe healing can begin before judgment has to fall.
And that’s the kind of response God’s always been longing for.
Thanks for walking through Ezekiel 5 with me. I know it ain’t easy reading, but sometimes the hard chapters are the ones that wake us up the most. Stay tender. Stay listening. God’s still speaking.
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