“A third part of you will die with the pestilence, and they will be consumed with famine in the midst of you, and a third part will fall by the sword round about you, and a third part I will scatter to all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them.”
What the shaving of his head and beard have indicated is now described in detail. For one third, death by pestilence and famine. For one third, death by the sword. For one third, scattering in all directions. But the latter will also include death at the hands of adversaries who take advantage of their condition, and death at the hands of their captors. (See 2 Kings 25:1-21; 2 Chronicles 36:17-21; Jeremiah 39:1-18).