Ezekiel 9:1

The Wicked Are Slain

1 Then He called out in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, “Let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a¹ deadly weapon in his hand.”

2 And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his¹ battle-ax in his hand. ^aOne man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer’s inkhorn² at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

3 Now ^athe glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the¹ temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side;

4 and the Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put ^aa mark on the foreheads of the men ^bwho sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

5 To the others He said in my¹ hearing, “Go after him through the city and ^akill; ^bdo not let your eye spare, nor have any pity.

6 ^aUtterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but ^bdo not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and ^cbegin at My sanctuary.” ^dSo they began with the elders who were before the² temple.

7 Then He said to them, “Defile the¹ temple, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” And they went out and killed in the city.

8 So it was, that while they were killing them, I was left alone; and I ^afell on my face and cried out, and said, ^b“Ah, Lord God! Will You destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?”

Commentaries:

Forerunner Commentary
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What Does Ezekiel 9:1 Mean?

Ezekiel 9:1-8

Ezekiel's blood must have run cold when he heard God's judgment, which appears in the last verse of the previous chapter: "Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them."

Continuing the vision in Ezekiel 9, it relates a partial execution of that judgment. It is important to note here that the prophet witnesses God actually leaving His portable throne (described in detail in Ezekiel 1). At this point, "the glory of the God of Israel" actually demounts from it and removes, as verse 3 records, "to the threshold of the temple." So He has taken His place in the Temple, but not on the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies. He is, in effect, in the gate, a place of judgment.

And this is a momentous judgment. In verses 5-6, God commands some of the angels, "Go . . . through the city and kill; do not let your eye spare, nor have pity. Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women." This is a summary judgment on the entire populace of Jerusalem!

When Ezekiel heard this command, how did he respond? Certainly not in a self-righteous, I-told-you-so manner. When he is alone with God, the angels having left on their mission, he falls on his face in apparent anguish, crying out: "Ah, Lord GOD! Will You destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?" (verse 8).

This is a vital question. Ezekiel is concerned about the people and about the scope of God's judgment. Like Lot, he lived in his own kind of Sodom, in his own type of Gomorrah, and he felt anguish over the sin that he saw and heard and over its consequences—as it were, tormented by what was happening around him. Ezekiel was emotionally and spiritually tormented or tortured, not by what the pagans were doing around him, but by what the leaders and the people of Israel were doing in his immediate environment—and even in the Temple! Their wickedness and what they were about to suffer for it are what tormented this righteous man. In vision, he must have witnessed a terrible slaughter, and the trauma and shock of that vision affected him most acutely. Indeed, a prophet of God has no pretty job.

Charles Whitaker
The Torment of the Godly (Part One)

Ezekiel 9:1-6

One of the spirit beings who had "charge over the city" (verse 1) carried, not a battle-axe like his fellows, but a writer's inkhorn (verse 2), and he was also dressed differently, in linen. His is a different purpose. God charges him to go ahead of his fellows, saying in verse 4: "Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it."

The others follow him, obeying God's command to go through the city killing and not having pity (verse 5), but in verse 6, God warns, "Do not come near anyone on whom is the mark."

Those people who sighed and cried somehow found a place of safety from the conflagration and the terror. They had God's mark on them, protecting them from His judgment. Sighing and crying over the abominations and the sins of the larger society, then, must be enormously important to us, too, as we also stand on the brink of similar tribulation.

Charles Whitaker
The Torment of the Godly (Part One)

Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Ezekiel 9:1:

Habakkuk 1:2-4

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Ezekiel 9:2 >>

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The Wicked Are Slain

What Does Ezekiel 9:1 Mean?

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