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Chapter 5: God orders Ezekiel to take a very sharp sword and to
use it as a razor to cut off the hair of his head and his beard.
He was told to weigh in a balance the hair, so as to divide it
into three parts. He was to burn one third in the midst of the
city, perhaps on the clay tablet on which he had mad a map of the
city in chapter 4. Another third he should strike with the sword
around the city, and the remaining third he was to scatter to the
wind. Then God will unsheath His sword against Jerusalem. The
symbolism is clear. Shaving off hair and beard were a disgrace. In
Isaiah 7.20 God says He will use the king of Assyria as a razor on
the city.

Oddly Ezekiel was told to take some of the hair from the skirt of
his robe, and burn it as a sign of the fire of God which would
consume Jerusalem.

God said He had set Jerusalem in the center of the nations--
geographically it was in a middle zone between the spheres of
influence of Egypt and of Mesopotmia, He says, frightfully ,that
Jerusalem has rebelled against God's ordinances more than the
gentiles, had become worse than the gentiles. Therefore God will
execute judgment against Jerusalem. There will even be
cannibalism. They have defiled God's sanctuary with idols.- cf
later, chapters 7- 8 ,will give details. God will unleash His
fury. They will be an object of reproach and a warning to the
nations round about them.