Ezekiel 5:2

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.

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 being explained in 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 (; , "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, (, through the disorders consequent on the assassination of Gedaliah by Ishmael, and the leading of the remnant into Egypt by Johanan; Jeremiah 41:1, etc.; 44:14, etc.) The "skirts" being able to contain but few, express that extreme limit to which God's goodness can reach.