(D) The Fate of the Besieged. Yet the last symbol is perhaps the most terrible of all; it suggests the all but irretrievable completeness of the destruction. Ezekiel is commanded to take a sharp sword, and use it, like a razor, upon his head and beard suggesting how clean the city will be swept of its population. The hair removed is to be scrupulously weighed there is a deadly accuracy in the Divine justice and divided into three portions, destined to be burned, smitten, and scattered respectively, symbolic (as we learn from Ezekiel 5:12) of the fate of those within the city (the fire stands for pestilence and famine), of those caught near it, cruelly cut down in their efforts to escape, and of those who will be swept away to exile. Of these last a few, symbolised by a little hair caught in the folds of Ezekiel's garment, shall escape, but even this remnant is to be decimated by further disaster. (Perhaps the last sentence of Ezekiel 5:4 should be deleted.)
Related Commentaries of Ezekiel 5:1
Ezekiel 5:1-4
1 And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's 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.a
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.