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.
Thou shalt burn with fire a third part ... take a third part, and smite about it with a knife ... a third part ... scatter in the wind - three classes are described. The sword was to destroy one-third of the people; famine and plague another third, ("fire" in Ezekiel 5:2 being explained in Ezekiel 5:12 to mean "pestilence and famine"); that which remained was to be scattered among the nations. A few only of the last portion were to escape, symbolized by the hairs bound in Ezekiel's skirts (Ezekiel 5:3; Jeremiah 40:6, "the people that were left in the land" under charge of Gedaliah; 52:16). Even of these some were to be thrown into the fiery ordeal again, (Ezekiel 5:4, through the disorders consequent on the assassination of Gedaliah by Ishmael, and the leading of the remnant into Egypt by Johanan; Jeremiah 41:1-2, etc.; 44:14, etc.) The "skirts" being able to contain but few, express that extreme limit to which God's goodness can reach.