Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “Cause those who are in charge of the city to draw near, each man with his destroying weapon in his hand.” Behold, six men came from the way of the upper gate, which lies toward the north, every man with his slaughter weapon in his hand. One man in the middle of them was clothed in linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side. They went in, and stood beside the bronze altar.
The glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house; and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn by his side. Yahweh said to him, “Go through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”
To the others he said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him, and strike. Don’t let your eye spare, neither have pity. Kill utterly the old man, the young man, the virgin, little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom is the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” Then they began at the old men who were before the house.
He said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” They went out, and struck in the city.
While they were killing, and I was left, I fell on my face, and cried, and said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Will you destroy all the residue of Israel in your pouring out of your wrath on Jerusalem?”
Then he said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perversion; for they say, ‘Yahweh has forsaken the land, and Yahweh doesn’t see.’ As for me also, my eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head.”
Behold, the man clothed in linen, who had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, “I have done as you have commanded me.”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 Now the manner of that vengeance which was lately…
Now the manner of that vengeance which was lately mentioned is expressed. Hence the Prophet says, God exclaimed, so that his command reached to the Chaldeans, who were to be executors of his vengeance, and therefore the imperative mood pleases me better, approach ye therefore. Those who consider the tense past say “visitations,” nor can they do otherwise, because no sense can be elicited from the words — to have approached the prefecture of the city. But if we read the imperative mood, the sense agrees very well, approach ye the prefecture: the thing is put for the persons, or the name of the men may be understood, and thus פקדות, phekdoth, may be taken in the genitive case. As to the general meaning, God commands his servants who held authority over the devoted city, to approach, or apply themselves, or be ready to fulfill his work, and let each, says he, have his instrument of destruction: here destruction is taken actively. For God does not mean that the Chaldeans were armed for their own destruction, but for that of the Jews, and the ruin of the city. It follows —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 The time to take vengeance.
The time to take vengeance.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–11 Eze 9:1 He cried also in mine ears with…
Eze 9:1 He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man [with] his destroying weapon in his hand.
Ver. 1. He cried also.] God, to whom vengeance belongeth, calleth aloud and with a courage, as we say, to the executioners of his wrath, to come and fall on.
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Cause them that have charge over the city.] Proefecti urbis - i.e., the angels, here called the visitations or visitors of Jerusalem, the prefects of the city.
Every man with his destroying weapon.] Called {Eze 9:2} a maul, or battle axe, telum dissipatorium.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–11 He cried; the man whom he had seen upon…
He cried; the man whom he had seen upon the throne, Christ, who is Lord and Sovereign. Or, the glory of God, or the God of glory, or an angel by order from God.
In mine ears; either a Hebraism, he cried so that I distinctly heard; or rather to intimate that Ezekiel only heard what was spoken; the elders who were now with him hearing nothing of what was spoken.
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Cause them to draw near; Approach, ye visitations, i.e. ye sore, wasting, unparalleled judgments; so the concrete in the superlative degree is sometimes expressed in the abstract, as it is here: or, these judgments are already near at hand. It may point, at the chief commanders in the Babylonish army,
them that have charge; not those that were now officers under Zedekiah, and commissioned by him, but those whom God hath appointed to destroy the city; angels, say some; the Chaldean commanders, think others.
With his destroying weapon; each of these had a weapon proper for that kind of destruction which he was to effect; and so, some to slay with sword, another with the pestilence, another with famine; each had his proper work herein, and it is called his destruction. In his hand, denoting both readiness unto, expedition in, and strength for the work.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 5 In these verses we have,
In these verses we have,
I. The summons given to Jerusalem's destroyers to come forth and give their attendance. He that appeared to the prophet (Eze 8:2), that had brought him to Jerusalem and had shown the wickedness that was done there, he cried, Cause those that have charge over the city to draw near (Eze 9:1), or, as it might better be read, and nearer the original, Those that have charge over the city are drawing near. He had said (Eze 8:18), I will deal in fury; now, says he to the prophet, thou shalt see who are to be employed as the instruments of my wrath. Appropinquaverunt visitationes civitatis - The visitations (or visitors) of the city are at hand. They would not know the day of their visitations in mercy, and now they are to be visited in wrath. Observe, 1. how the notice of this is given to the prophet: He cried it in my ears with a loud voice, which intimates the vehemency of him that spoke; when men are highly provoked, and threaten in anger, they speak aloud. Those that regard not the counsels God gives them in a still small voice shall be made to hear the threatenings, to hear and tremble. It denotes also the prophet's unwillingness to be told this: he was deaf on that ear, but there is no remedy, their sin will not admit an excuse and therefore their judgment will not admit a delay: "He cried it in my ears with a loud voice; he made me hear it, and I heard it with a sad heart." 2. What this notice is. There are those that have charge over the city to destroy it, not the Chaldean armies, they are to be indeed employed in this work, but they are not the visitors, they are only the servants, or tools rather. God's angels have received a charge now to lay that city waste, which they had long had a charge to protect and watch over. They are at hand, as destroying angels, as ministers of wrath, for every man has his destroying weapon in his hand, as the angel that kept the way of the tree of life with a flaming sword. Note, Those that have by sin made God their enemy have made the good angels their enemies too. These visitors are called and caused to draw near. Note, God has ministers of wrath always within call, always at command, invisible powers, by whom he accomplishes is purposes. The prophet is made to see this in vision, that he might with the greater assurance in his preaching denounce these judgments. God told it him with a loud voice, taught it him with a strong hand (Isa 8:11), that it might make the deeper impression upon him and that he might thus proclaim it in the people's ears.
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II. Their appearance, upon this summons, is recorded. Immediately six men came (Eze 9:2), one for each of the principal gates of Jerusalem. Two destroying angels were sent against Sodom, but six against Jerusalem; for Jerusalem's doom in the judgment will be thrice as heavy as that of Sodom. There is an angel watching at every gate to destroy, to bring in judgments from every quarter, and to take heed that none escape. One angel served to destroy the first-born of Egypt, and the camp of the Assyrians, but here are six. In the Revelation we find seven that were to pour out the vials of God's wrath, Rev 16:1. They came with every one a slaughter-weapon in his hand, prepared for the work to which they were called. The nations of which the king of Babylon's army was composed, which some reckon to be six, and the commanders of his army (of whom six are named as principal, Jer 39:3), may be called the slaughter-weapons in the hands of the angels. The angels are thoroughly furnished for every service. 1. Observe whence they came - from the way of the higher gate, which lies towards the north (Eze 9:2), either because the Chaldeans came from the north (Jer 1:14, Out of the north an evil shall break forth) or because the image of jealousy was set up at the door of the inner gate that looks towards the north, Eze 8:3, Eze 8:5. At that gate of the temple the destroying angels entered, to show what it was that opened the door to them. Note, That way that sin lies judgments may be expected to come. 2. Observe where they placed themselves: They went in and stood beside the brazen altar, on which sacrifices were wont to be offered and atonement made. When they acted as destroyers they acted as sacrificers, not from any personal revenge or ill-will, but with a pure and sincere regard to the glory of God; for to his justice all they slew were offered up as victims. They stood by the altar, as it were to protect and vindicate that, and plead its righteous cause, and avenge the horrid profanation of it. At the altar they were to receive their commission to destroy, to intimate that the iniquity of Jerusalem, like that of Eli's house, was not to be purged by sacrifice.
III. The notice taken of one among the destroying angels distinguished in his habit from the rest, from whom some favour might be expected; it should seem he was not one of the six, but among them, to see that mercy was mixed with judgment, Eze 9:2. This man was clothed with linen, as the priests were, and he had a writer's inkhorn hanging at his side, as anciently attorneys and lawyers' clerks had, which he was to make use of, as the other six were to make use of their destroying weapons. Here the honours of the pen exceeded those of the sword, but he was the Lord of angels that made use of the writer's inkhorn; for it is generally agreed, among the best interpreters, that this man represented Christ as Mediator saving those that are his from the flaming sword of divine justice. He is our high priest, clothed with holiness, for that was signified by the fine linen, Rev 19:8. As prophet he wears the writer's inkhorn. The book of life is the Lamb's book. The great things of the law and gospel which God has written to us are of his writing; for it is the Spirit of Christ, in the writers of the scripture, that testifies to us, and the Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Note, It is a matter of great comfort to all good Christians that, in the midst of the destroyers and the destructions that are abroad, there is a Mediator, a great high priest, who has an interest in heaven, and whom saints on earth have an interest in.
IV. The removal of the appearance of the divine glory from over the cherubim. Some think this was that usual display of the divine glory which was between the cherubim over the mercy seat, in the most holy place, that took leave of them now, and never returned; for it is supposed that it was not in the second temple. Others think it was that display of the divine glory which the prophet now saw over the cherubim in vision; and this is more probable, because this is called the glory of the God of Israel (Rev 8:4), and this is it which he had now his eye upon; this was gone to the threshold of the house, as it were to call to the servants that attended without the door, to send them on their errand and give them their instructions. And the removal of this, as well as the former, might be significant of God's departure from them, and leaving them their house desolate; and when God goes all good goes, but he goes from none till they first drive him from them. He went at first no further than the threshold, that he might show how loth he was to depart, and might give them both time and encouragement to invite his return to them and his stay with them. Note, God's departures from a people are gradual, but gracious souls are soon award of the first step he takes towards a remove. Ezekiel immediately observed that the glory of the god of Israel had gone up from the cherub: and what is a vision of angels if God be gone?
V. The charge given to the man clothed in linen to secure the pious remnant from the general desolation. We do not read that this Saviour was summoned and sent for, as the destroyers were; for he is always ready, appearing in the presence of God for us; and to him, as the most proper person, the care of those that are marked for salvation is committed, Eze 9:4. Now observe, 1. The distinguishing character of this remnant that is to be saved. They are such as sigh and cry, sigh in themselves, as men in pain and distress, cry to God in prayer, as men in earnest, because of all the abominations that are committed in Jerusalem. It was not only the idolatries they were guilty of, but all their other enormities, that were abominations to God. These pious few had witnessed against those abominations and had done what they could in their places to suppress them; but, finding all their attempts for the reformation of manners fruitless, they sat down, and sighted, and cried, wept in secret, and complained to God, because of the dishonour done to his name by their wickedness and the ruin it was bringing upon their church and nation. Note, It is not enough that we do not delight in the sins of others, and that we have not fellowship with them, but we must mourn for them, and lay them to heart; we must grieve for that which we cannot help, as those that hate sin for its own sake, and have a tender concern for the souls of others, as David (Psa 119:136), and Lot, who vexed his righteous soul with the wicked conversation of his neighbours. The abominations committed in Jerusalem are to be in a special manner lamented, because they are in a particular manner offensive to God. 2. The distinguishing care taken of them. Orders are given to find those all out that are of such a pious public spirit: "Go through the midst of the city in quest of them, and though they are ever so much dispersed, and ever so closely hid from the fury of their persecutors, yet see that you discover them, and set a mark upon their foreheads," (1.) To signify that God owns them for his, and he will confess them another day. A work of grace in the soul is to God a mark upon the forehead, which he will acknowledge as his mark, and by which he knows those that are his. (2.) To give to them who are thus marked an assurance of God's favour, that they may know it themselves; and the comfort of knowing it will be the most powerful support and cordial in calamitous times. Why should we perplex ourselves about this temporal life if we know by the mark that we have eternal life? (3.) To be a direction to the destroyers whom to pass by, as the blood upon the door-posts was an indication that that was an Israelite's house, and the first-born there must not be slain. Note, Those who keep themselves pure in times of common iniquity God will keep safe in times of common calamity. Those that distinguish themselves shall be distinguished; those that cry for other men's sins shall not need to cry for their own afflictions, for they shall be either delivered from them or comforted under them. God will set a mark upon his mourners, will book their sighs and bottle their tears. The sealing of the servants of God in their foreheads mentioned in Rev 7:3 was the same token of the care God has of his own people with this related here; only this was to secure them from being destroyed, that from being seduced, which is equivalent.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–11 He cried also in mine ears with a loud…
He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice,.... That is, the glory of the Lord God of Israel, whom the prophet saw in the temple, and who directed him from place to place, and showed him all the abominations committed there: this loud voice of the Lord was not so much to excite the attention of the prophet, as to call together the ministers of his vengeance; and to show the greatness of his indignation, and the vehemence of his wrath, which was stirred up by the sins of the people:
saying, cause them that have the charge over the city to draw near; or,
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"who were appointed over the city,''
as the Targum; that is, the city of Jerusalem; by whom are meant either the ministering angels, who had been the guardians of it, but now were to be employed another way; or the princes of the Chaldean army, who had a charge against the city to destroy it; see Isa 10:6. The Syriac version is, "draw near, ye avengers of the city"; and the Septuagint and Arabic versions are "the vengeance of the city draws nigh":
even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand; weapons of war, as bows and arrows, sword and spear; see Jer 6:22.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–8 Instruments prepared to destroy the city, ver. 1-2. The…
Instruments prepared to destroy the city, ver. 1-2. The glory removes to the threshold of the temple, ver. 3. Orders given to mark a remnant, ver. 3, 4. The execution of them who were not marked begun, ver. 5-7. The prophet intercedes, but in vain, ver. 8-10. The report of him that had marked the remnant, ver. 11.
He - The man whom he had seen upon the throne. Them - Those whom God hath appointed to destroy the city: perhaps angels. Every man - Everyone; 'tis an Hebrew idiom. Each of these had a weapon proper for that kind of destruction which he was to effect; and so, some to slay with the sword, another with the pestilence, another with famine. In his hand - Denoting both expedition in, and strength for the work.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 The vision in this chapter seems intended to denote…
CHAPTER IX
The vision in this chapter seems intended to denote the general
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destruction of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, excepting a few
pious individuals that were distressed at the abominations that
were committed in the land; who, in order to be delivered from
the general calamity, were MARKED, in allusion, perhaps, to the
custom of eastern princes, who marked their servants in the
forehead, or rather to the custom very frequent among the Pagan
worshippers, of indelibly imprinting on different parts of
their body the marks of their idols. To indicate, likewise,
that God was soon to forsake the temple, the shechinah, or
glorious symbol of his presence, is seen to remove from the
inner sanctuary to the threshold or door of the temple, 1-7.
The prophet intercedes for his people; but God, on account of
the greatness of their sins, will not be entreated, 8-11.
NOTES ON CHAP. IX
Verse 1. Cause them that have charge over the city] By those six men with destroying weapons the Chaldeans are represented, who had received commission to destroy the city; and when the north is mentioned in such cases, Chaldea and the Chaldean armies are generally intended. There appears to have been six men with a sort of slaughter-bills, and one man with an inkhorn. These may represent the seven counsellors of the eastern monarchs, who always saw the king's face, and knew all the secrets of the government. One of them was that minister who had the office of reporting concerning criminals, who carried the book of death and the book of life into the presence of the king, where the names were entered of criminals who were destined to suffer, and of those who were either considered as innocent or recommended to mercy; those of the former in the book of death, those of the latter in the book of life. This person with the inkhorn might be termed, in our phrase, the recorder.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 8, 9, 11 Eze 9:1-2. He cried also in mine ears —…
Eze 9:1-2. He cried also in mine ears — Namely, the man whom he had seen upon the throne; with a loud voice — This denoted the terribleness of the judgments which were going to be inflicted. Cause them that have charge, &c. — That is, says Lowth, “the angels who had the charge of executing God’s judgments upon the city.” Or it may be intended of the Chaldean army, or of its principal leaders, who had a charge or commission against Jerusalem, to avenge the divine justice of it, because of its heinous provocations. The passage is prophetical of the slaughter which should be made of its inhabitants. And behold, &c. — No sooner was the command given, than these ministers of God’s displeasure appear ready to execute it. Six men — In the vision they appeared as men, and the prophet terms them according to their appearance. From the way of the higher gate — See note on Eze 8:14. Which lieth toward the north — The Babylonians made their inroads into Palestine, as has been more than once observed, from the north, and by this gate it seems, the Chaldeans first entered into the city. And every man a slaughter-weapon in his hand — Prepared for the work to which they were called. And one among them was clothed with linen — A garment proper to the priesthood; and the habit in which the angels often appeared, Dan 10:5; Dan 12:6-7. This person, at least, seems to have been an angel, who had the charge given him of preserving those that were to be saved amidst the general destruction; with a writer’s inkhorn by his side — That he might set a mark on those who were to be preserved amidst the general slaughter. Thus, Rev 7:2, St. John in a vision saw an angel with the seal of the living God, and therewith the servants of God were sealed in their foreheads; “in allusion,” says Bishop Newton, “to the ancient custom of marking servants in their foreheads, to distinguish what they were, and to whom they belonged.” The position of the inkhorn, by the side of this writer, may appear strange to a European reader, but according to Olearius, Dr. Shaw, and others, the custom of placing it by the side continues in the East to this day. And they went in and stood beside the brazen altar — To denote that the men ordained to destruction were offered up as so many sacrifices to God’s justice. The destruction of the wicked is elsewhere expressed by the name of a sacrifice: see Eze 39:17; Isa 29:2; Isa 34:6.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 Them that have charge - The angels who have…
Them that have charge - The angels who have charge to execute God’s sentence.
Every man - “angels,” not “men.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 Upper, leading to the court of the priests. These…
Upper, leading to the court of the priests. These were six angels, representing the army coming from Babylon. The seventh was an angel of peace. (Calmet) --- God never abandoned his whole Church. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 2. The Judgment on the Guilty (Ch. 9)
2. The Judgment on the Guilty (Ch. 9)
1And He cried in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Near are the visitations of the city, and every one [has] his weapon of destruction in his hand. 2And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which looketh toward the north, and every one his weapon for breaking in pieces in his hand; and a man in their midst, clothed in linen, and an inkhorn on his loins: and they came and stood beside the brazen altar. 3And the glory of the God of Israel rose up from the cherub, over which it was, to the threshold of the house; and He called to 4the man clothed in linen, which had an inkhorn on his loins. And Jehovah said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, the midst of Jerusalem, and mark a [cross-] mark upon the foreheads of the people that sigh and that groan for all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof. 5And to the others He said in mine ears, Go through the city after him, and smite; your eyes shall not 6spare, neither shall ye show pity. Old man, young man, and maiden, and child, and women shall ye slay to destruction, and [yet] no one upon whom is a [cross-] mark shall ye touch; and ye shall begin at My sanctuary. And they began with the men, the elders, who were before the house. 7And He said unto them., Defile the house, and fill the courts with slain; go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city. 8And it came to pass, when they had slain, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! destroyest Thou the whole residue of Israel, whilst Thou art pouring out Thy fury 9upon Jerusalem? And He said unto me, The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of wresting of judgment; for they say, Jehovah hath forsaken the land, and Jehovah 10seeth not. And I also, Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I show pity; their way I give upon their head. 11And, behold, the man clothed in linen, which had the inkhorn on his loins, gave answer, saying, I have done as Thou hast commanded me.
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Eze_9:1 Anoth. read.: בלי plur., Sept., Syr., Arab. In Eze_9:2, also, the Syr. and some codd. have the plural.
Eze_9:2. ... ἐνδεδυκως ποδηρη, κ. ζωνη σαπφειρου ἐπι της ὀσφυος αὐτου.
Eze_9:4. ... δος το σημειον—Vulg: … et signa Thau super—
Eze_9:5. Instead of על anoth. read.: אל.
Eze_9:6. ... κ. ἀπο των ἁγιων μου ἀρξασθε.. ... οἱ ἠσαν ἐσω ἐν τ. οἰκω.
Eze_9:7. ... πληρωσατε τ. ὁδους... κ. κοπτετε.
Eze_9:8. Other read.: בהכותם, ונשאר, ואשאר.—ואזעק קול גדול, Syr.
Eze_9:9. (For דמים they read חמס.) Sept.; ... ὀτι ἐπλησθη ἡ γη λαων πολλων, κ. ἡ πολις... ἀδικιας κ. ἀκαθαρσιως.
Eze_9:11. Anoth. read.: בכל אשר (Talmud Babyl., Targ.).
EXEGETICAL REMARKS
The iniquity (Ezekiel 8) is now followed, in accordance with God’s threatening (Eze_8:18), by the punishment as the carrying out of the threatening, and that as regards the execution of judgment on the guilty inhabitants first. But in the midst of destruction there is at the same time preservation.
Eze_9:1. He; the same as in Eze_9:4. With a loud voice, not without allusion to Eze_8:18; just as also: and He cried in mine ears. The loud voice does not correspond to “the greatness of the abominations which cry to God” (Hengst.); rather is “the strength of the emotion” thereby portrayed (Hitz.)—“the loud outburst of indignation” (Jun.)—at the same time an energetic act of the Lord.—קרבו (Eze_12:23), most simply with Hengst. perf. Kal, as in Hos_9:7 בָּאוּ׳, an announcement meant alike generally and for Ezekiel,—Hengst.: for the special executioners of what has been announced (ואיש׳), viz. that it is now the time. קרב in Kal: to press on, to come near, to be near; in Piel, transitively: to cause to approach, to admit, to offer; intransitively (and at the same time intensively): to be very near, to approach with the greatest haste. (Hitzig reads קִרְבּוּ. Häv., Kl.: imper. Piel intransitively: “hither ye,” etc.)—פקדה, as almost always: penal visitation (Hos_9:7). The plural is not out of place either as regards the meaning of the word or in the connection. A plurality is implied in Eze_5:12; Eze_5:15 sq. [Hitz.: “authority” for: those who have received orders against the city, so that פקודות is particularized by means of איש. Häv., Kl.: “overseership,” the guard, the heavenly watchers of the city, who, as an authority appointed by God, are to execute the punishment on the ungodly.] Hitzig asks: to whom is the summons addressed? Cocc. answers: not so much to those entrusted with the visitation, as to the watchers of the city, who have hitherto kept off the former. In the meantime, however, no summons at all is issued, but with express reference to the prophet the approaching punishment is proclaimed by God,—as regards the substance of the thing, expressed in general terms, and as respects the form of its execution, in such a way that it is only in Eze_9:2 that a more detailed definition follows. What sort of persons are to be understood by איש may, of course, be conjectured from their equipment: כלי׳, according to the context (comp. also Ezekiel 5.): each one his sword; against which Häv.: “no common earthly weapon is suitable in the hands of such a host.” A hint as to who the persons are is contained, perhaps, in the expression: משחתו; comp. Exo_12:23; 2Sa_24:16. [Bunsen: “the judges of the city, the punishing and destroying angels.”]
Eze_9:2. They are men also in Gen_18:2, but none the less angels. [According to Klief.: men, as such, execute the judgment on Jerusalem; according to Calv.: the Chaldeans; according to Grot.: the generals of Nebuchadnezzar, who from six sides besieged and took the city (?). According to Cocc.: signifying the angelic hosts together with the Babylonian army-corps.] An explanation of the divine judgment makes itself clear (Eze_1:4). The number six, whose interpretation has been attempted even to desperation, needs no explanation, since it is rather the number seven that lies before us with the one man in their midst, etc., the specially sacred number; consequently: how, on the basis of God’s covenant with Israel, punishment and exemption take place. [Hitz.: “the dogma of the seven archangels in germ.”] As Ezekiel is to be supposed in the court of the priests (Eze_8:3; Eze_8:5; Eze_8:16), the higher gate will be the gate indicated there. Comp. that passage.—מפצו, Jer_51:20 sqq. He who is in the midst of the destroyers proves that in the midst of destruction there is also to be something else. What? His clothing tells us partly, his equipment partly. קסת הספר, only in our chapter, is: a writer’s utensil; not a writing-tablet, but: an inkhorn, such as writers were accustomed to carry hanging in their girdle or on it. From this, however, we are not to infer, with Keil, that he is “a chancellor among the other officials,” for such is not the character of the six; but from that wherewith he is provided we are to infer what he has to do: he is not like those others to destroy, to break in pieces. He has an inkhorn, whereas they have each a sword! [The Sept. read הַסַּפִּיר, and translated: a sapphire girdle.] From the destroyers he is distinguished likewise by his clothing, which is certainly not in conformity with an appointment of that kind. In linens (plural) is explained by Hengst. of the collective linen (Lev_16:4; Lev_16:23) garments of the high priest, whose antitype is the Angel of the Lord, the Angel of the covenant (Mal_1:3), who, according to Zec_1:12, gets from the Lord good comfortable words for the covenant-people, just as the high priest appears in Zechariah 3. as the type of Christ, as the figure of the Angel of the Lord. So already Hävernick. Keil, on the other hand, only admits that the one man in relation to the six “stands somewhat like the high priest in relation to the Levites.” According to Hitz. the garment of byssus marks him out as the highest in rank; he appears to be the same in whom, with Zechariah and the author of the Apocalypse, the spirit of prophecy assumes personality, the so-called par excellence Man of God, Gabriel of the book of Daniel and of the Koran; similarly the πνεῦμα in Eze_8:2-3 appears to have assumed angelic form (!). According to Cocc. the Spirit of God is likewise symbolized here, who produces the mark upon the foreheads of believers,—their confession. According to Calvin it is an angel, who is distinguished by the ornamental character of his dress from the men, the remaining six. Keil admits in addition the comparison with Dan_10:5; Dan_12:6-7 (Rev_1:13 sqq.), but holds that the view of the Angel of the Lord is not thereby established, inasmuch as “the shining white robe” is peculiar not merely to this angel or Christ, but the seven angels also in Rev_15:6 appear in shining white linen, and the shining white colour symbolizes in general divine holiness and glory (Rev_19:8). In the first place, however, by the expression: clothed in linen, nothing at all is said as to brightness of colour, but it is simply the material of the clothing that is given, which, if it points to anything, points to the clothing of the high priest. Now, as the linen garments of the priests (comp. Eze_44:17 sqq.) mark them out “as the mediators of sanctification,” whose “entire calling had for its aim the sanctification of Israel by Jehovah, and the sanctification of Jehovah by Israel” (Bähr, Symb. ii. 89), the in linen is admirably appropriate in our context. The sanctification of Israel is limited here, of course, to the separation of certain parties in order to their being spared, as it is given in commission to the man by Jehovah (Eze_9:4); but the sanctification of Jehovah takes place in the case before us not merely through, but on Israel. Ever and always it is a priestly act, in the midst of destruction, to make the mark on what destruction does not touch (Eze_9:6). If, accordingly, it is not so clear from the clothing and equipment who the party in question is, as what he is to do, for what he is designed, yet it is generally acknowledged that his being in the midst of the six is the place of leader, of chief among them. Only after he has marked or not have they to smite; they go after him (Eze_9:4-5); he answers in their name likewise (Eze_9:11). To a position of such distinction, if the six are angels, the Angel of Jehovah thoroughly corresponds. Comp. Zec_1:11 sq.; Jos_5:14; Genesis 18. By their taking up their position at the brazen altar is by no means asserted their taking up their position before Jehovah, i.e. because the glory of God is there, as Keil, Klief.; but the meaning is: where the guilt has reached its climax (Eze_8:16), from that point also the punishment must go forth. [Häv.: as the coming from the north stood in relation to the sin committed there, so now the heavenly beings appear “as it were looking after and protecting the rights of the altar.” “As a heavy accusation, the forsaken and despised brazen altar stood there;” comp. Amo_9:1. Grot.: they stood there as those who would prepare many victims for God! Isa_34:6; Jer_12:3; Jer_46:10.] The high-priestly man in linen also corresponds therewith. Comp. besides, Exo_32:35 sqq. (Hengst.: “the protection of the pious is his privilege; but the work of vengeance also is under his control.” “The angels stand, waiting for God’s beck and command. He whose spiritual eye was opened could only look with deep horror on the people filled with joyful hopes of the future. They appear at the place of transgression, in order to glorify God in the downfall of those who would not glorify Him by their life.”)
Eze_9:3 makes the glory, etc. (which is there conceived of as the Shechinah-cloud) move out of the holy of holies (Häv., Hengst.), and that not merely as far as “the gate of the sanctuary, near which the altar stood” (Hengst.), for, “in order to give commands to His servants,” it is not necessary for Jehovah to go to the place where they are standing; and He called suggests rather a greater distance. As to the house, comp. on Eze_8:14; Eze_8:16. Accordingly, by the threshold of it will not be meant, as Keil supposes, the threshold of the temple porch, through which one entered into the holy place (Eze_8:16), but the outermost point, where the exit was from the court of the people into the city—quite in accordance with the direction which follows in Eze_9:4 sqq. That the glory of Jehovah, according to Eze_8:16, stood over the cherub between the porch and the altar (Keil), is not said in Eze_8:16; and Klief. says at first also merely: “where the vision of God and the prophet had for the moment their station.” We do not forget that the characteristic of Ezekiel is the prophecy of glory (see Introd. to Eze_1:4-28), and that therefore everything comes forth to the prophet always from the glory of Jehovah; but the vision of that glory changes alike as regards the locality and as regards the form of manifestation, so that sometimes this, sometimes that other feature steps into the foreground, and the rest into the background. For this there was a thorough appropriateness in the “variable hieroglyph,” as v. Meyer has happily called the cherub. (Bähr, i. 312.) The word הכרוב appears in Ezekiel for the first time here, and that in reference to the arrangements of the holy of holies, specially of the ark of the covenant. As the chajoth in Ezekiel 1. are the same as the plural כרובים, used by Ezekiel also in Ezekiel 10., and common elsewhere (הַכְּרוּב collectively, not: for the “ideal unity of the cherubim” (Hengst.), but: for the well-known double ornament of the sacred chest), the converting of the chajoth into cherubim in its application here (Doctrinal Reflections, 12, p. 55) may be looked upon at the same time as a prophetic interpretation of the employment of the cherub in worship, especially over the ark of the covenant, on the basis of the vision in Ezekiel 1. As to the disputed etymology, see Ges. Lex. and Thes.; Kurtz, in Herzog, 2.; Lange, Genes, p. 241. For the prophetico-historic employment of the cherub in Ezekiel 10. in respect of its movement (p. 40), the conjectural derivation from the converting of רְכוּב (Psa_104:3; Psa_18:10) into כְּרוּב commends itself more than any other, as hinting at the passing of the chajoth of Ezekiel 1. into the cherub. The chariot-element (as against Kurtz) has in the representation of Ezekiel something essential; and if the form is not carried out perfectly as regards the copy in the tabernacle and temple, yet, as far as the idea is concerned, there can be no hesitation about it, as Jehovah may also remove His abode from the midst of Israel, inasmuch as He (אלהי ישראל) is no national God in the heathen sense. As to the rest, see Doctrinal Reflections.—With Eze_9:3 is still to be compared Eze_10:4; Eze_10:18; Exo_40:36 sqq.; Num_10:11 sq. The rising up of Jehovah already prefigured the abandonment of the temple to the enemies of Israel for judgment on them.—Over which it was, from the setting up of the ark, in accordance with the idea of the symbol, for threatening and promise, not always visible, but (as here) making itself so in a given case (Psa_80:1).
Eze_9:4. The divine command runs: “Away into the city.” Yet grace shall go before justice. But nothing is said of marking in the temple; and, on the other hand, certainly in Eze_9:6-7 smiting is spoken of. תָּוָה = to make a תָּו, which last letter in the Hebrew was in the ancient Phœnician alphabet, in the Egyptian writing, as also upon the Jewish coins, of the form of a cross (Τ). Hence as in general תוה (1Sa_21:13) is “to mark,” and תו “a mark” (Job_31:35), so perhaps here והתוית תו is used on purpose of the marking of this particular mark. “A cross was just as natural for a mark as for a signature” (Hitz.). Häv., who (as also Vitringa) conversely derives תו from תוה, holds the indefiniteness as required by the circumstance, that the mark was not intended for men. But an indefinite thing is certainly no mark, not even for angels, who are conceived of here in human form; and if it was to be a mark of any kind you like, this certainly would be somehow expressed. Klief. (Vulg.): a Tau as mark. The deeper significance, that a cross was to be the mark for sparing, Christian exegesis has perceived from of old (Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, Jerome). As to the rest, comp. Rev_7:3; Rev_9:4; Rev_14:1; Exodus 12. (Gen_4:15). “By this mark one is separated from the mass” (Hengst.). Consequently, if the mass is dedicated to destruction, he is preserved. Upon the foreheads, according to most: because there it is most easily seen; according to others: as there slaves bore the names of their masters (inscripti, literati servi). Comp. also Exo_28:38 (Bähr, ii. 143).—Men, because of what precedes: the city, Jerusalem: inhabitants, citizens. The qualification for the mark is twofold, expressed in words of similar sound. אנח inwardly, אנק also uttering it; consequently those who are not only not like-minded, but also audibly make known their pain. (The Niphal, which commonly stands in the case of reflex influences on the mind.)
Eze_9:5. על, Qeri אל; as also the singular עֵינְכֶם, which is unnecessary. Comp. Exo_32:27; Eze_8:18; Eze_5:11.
Eze_9:6. Deu_32:25; Eze_5:16. The command is not merely to knock them down, but to make an utter end of them. Because of Ezekiel 8., the beginning (supplementary to Eze_9:5) is made with the sanctuary; and this is immediately explained of the courts, which are before the house in the narrower sense, as men (Eze_8:16), elders (Eze_8:11), women (Eze_8:14) were in them. [Keil, following Klief., supposes: “they were in general old men, well stricken in years, who had come into the court to sacrifice, but yet all the while were liable to the judgment.” Hitz.: it was just the Sabbath! Rosenm.: “at My sanctuary,” i.e. at those who have sinned there. Sept.: as if וּמִמִּקְדָּשַׁי = at My holy ones, the priests. “When the Sept. read: ‘inside the house,’ this is manifestly incorrect,” Ew.] Comp. for this beginning 1Pe_4:17. (Consequently not like 2Ki_11:15.)
In Eze_9:7 what has already been done is not approved in the form of a command (Hengst.), because the Go forth is to follow; but as in this way the beginning is called good, so the order is given to continue onwards till the end. Comp. Num_19:11 (Lev_11:24). The defiling of the house takes place in accordance with Eze_9:6, inasmuch as the courts belonging to it as a whole (which explanation of הבית is given by means of החצרות, so that house here = “sanctuary” in Eze_9:6) are filled with corpses. It is only now they go into the city. He pushes them on, as it were, with military abruptness (Hengst.).
In Eze_9:8 Ezekiel only is left remaining in the court of the priests of the temple, for it is there the prophet is. (Against Kimchi, Hitz., Keil.) Impressive solitude! (1Ki_19:10.) It is not as being spared that Ezekiel, speaking as he does of his own accord as a mere spectator, comes into consideration, just as also the preserving mark is not made upon him. His objection is meant, therefore, to be read as occurring between the execution in the courts of the temple and that in the city. נֵאשַׁאַר, Rosenm., Hengst.: third pret. Niph. with א epenthetic for the first = “and he remained over,” viz. “I,” where we are to supply in thought אְַשֶׁר. Hengst.: “taking the place of the noun: a he-remained-over.” It is at all events surprising, in order to arrest attention, to emphasize the result. Buxtorf: expressing the consternation and perplexity of the prophet by means of the confused form of the word. Keil, following Hitz.: a “malformation, a blending together of the partic. and the imperf., and manifestly a slip of the pen, to be read as a partic. נִשְׁאָר, and to be connected with כְּהַכּוֹתָם.” See other attempts at explanation in Häv. Ew. reads simply: וָאֶשָׁאֵר Comp. Num_16:45; Jos_7:6. His anguish vents itself in this cry to God (Eze_11:13; 1Sa_15:11). For the question, comp. Gen_18:23 sqq., 20:4. This question is not: “from the soul of those upon whom the judgment has just fallen” (Hengst.), whose representative Ezekiel cannot be, but: from the feeling of his fellow-exiles, of whom therefore no mention is made. That his question is not hindered by his having heard of the pious being spared (Hitz.), shows either his fear in this respect, that in Jerusalem there will be nothing at all to be spared, or that the sparing in comparison with the destruction does not at all come into consideration. Hence כל. The residue of Israel is that which still remains (especially at Jerusalem) of Israel collectively after the previous (the Assyrian and the Chaldean) catastrophes. Comp. besides, Eze_7:8. Here the outpouring of fury, elsewhere the outpouring of the Spirit.
Eze_9:9. As the prophet, on account of the greatness of the destruction, makes no mention of the sparing in his question, in like manner God also does not do so in His answer, because of the greatness (במאד מאד, in a superlative sense) of the guilt alike of Israel and of Judah (Eze_4:4 sqq.). Comp. Gen_4:13; Lam_4:6.—Eze_8:17; Eze_7:23.—ממה, Ew.; perverseness; Hengst.: declension; Hitz.: identical with מומה, Isa_58:9. Hoph. of נטה, perhaps (as such testimony in favour of what is right on God’s part is necessary): of the perversion, the setting aside of the right (Deu_27:19; Amo_5:12). Apostasy from God does not lie in the context, and would also be more definitely expressed (1Ki_11:9). As in Eze_8:12 their idolatry is explained in this way from their own mouth, so here their moral corruption. Here also the question is not about God’s being and essence, but about His will and acting. The clauses are inverted to correspond with the present context: in Eze_8:12 it is the “not seeing” that is spoken of first, here it is the “having forsaken.” The filling of the land and city with lawless conduct shows how they imagine they have free scope, and fancy that no one is taking the oversight of them. And with the “not seeing” there is connected in Eze_9:10 a partial confirmation of their saying as regards the eye, which, however, on the other hand, so fearfully demonstrates God’s presence in the land by means of righteousness and judgment (aposiopesis). Comp. Eze_9:5, Eze_8:18; Eze_5:11; Eze_7:9. The way is the bent, and in general the manner, of life. But what they suppose they are treading under their feet comes as iniquity to be punished upon their head, (1Ki_8:32).
Eze_9:11. Already the answer of God gave an affirmative reply to the question of the prophet; but still more is this the case with the announcement of the accomplished fact made by the leader of the mysterious avengers in their name,—an announcement which certainly includes in it also the possible sparing. Comp. on Eze_9:2. Comp. Gen_37:14; Num_13:26. Comp. Luk_14:22; Joh_17:4. The Qeri כְּכֹל אְַשֶׁר is unnecessary.
DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS
1. It is a peculiarity of what our prophet sees in vision, that, however much the vision of glory (Ezekiel 1.) remains at the foundation, and however much on this basis the unity of Him who speaks to the prophet and transacts with him is in substance preserved, yet sometimes the one or the other element of the form of manifestation retires into the background, e.g. in Eze_8:2 sqq. the throne-chariot and the chajoth; and that sometimes, as in the chapter before us (Eze_9:3), a change of view takes place, corresponding to the sphere of the revelation, which is here the sanctuary of Jehovah. The thought which is to be expressed at the time supplies of itself the reason of the distinctive form of expression in vision, while at the same time there is no want of retrospective reference showing that it is one and the same thing, so that, as has been said, amid all the diversity the unity continues. In this way it is the same Jehovah who is seen in His glory in Ezekiel 1. that lays hold of Ezekiel in Eze_8:3, and that everywhere speaks to him and acts as his Guide. And so He who lifts him up, the Spirit (Eze_8:3), certainly controls the movements of the chajoth also in Eze_1:12; Eze_1:20 sqq. And in the seven men of Eze_9:2 it is merely the glory of Jehovah that is again unfolded.
2. Our chapter also furnishes a prelude to the last day, the “evening of the world” (as Lange calls it at Genesis 18), approaching for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus the appearance of angels on the scene is not merely natural by reason of this parallel, but so much the more as the judgment on Jerusalem in Holy Scripture—much more than the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah—is a foil, nay, a constituent element for the last judgment.
3. In the vision of glory (Ezekiel 1.) we have noticed repeatedly (comp. especially on Eze_1:28), along with a predominantly judicial character on the whole, the bright splendour, the sun-bright element, and lastly the rainbow. Thus the priestly form in white linen in the midst of the avengers cannot surprise us. The “one man” in their midst is a vivid allusion to “the likeness as the appearance of a man” in Eze_1:26.
4. Although conceived of executively in a historical form of expression for the immediate object of the vision in Ezekiel 9., yet the group of seven represents substantially the same thing as what Ezekiel 1. set before the eyes of the prophet, in reference, first of all, to Israel. Comp. in this connection especially what is held as established as to the Angel of the Lord in relation to the glory of Jehovah (Lange, Genesis, p. 386 [T. & T. Clark], and our Doctrinal Reflections on Eze_1:4-28). The Son of man, when He shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, as it is said in Mat_25:31, likewise separates (just as here the mark is the dividing element) the assembled nations one from another. Quite in accordance with the difference of times, of the last day from the time when it is called to-day, just as expressly does the judgment devolve upon Him then as does the sparing in our chapter.
5. It is not “Hebrew poetry,” as was the opinion of the ofttimes more æsthetic than theological Herder (Geist der hebr. Poesie, ii.), that is to be credited alike with the priestly element in the angel-leader of Ezekiel, and with the angelic element in the priesthood in general. But neither does the “symbolic cultus,” as Bähr and Umbreit maintain on the other hand, furnish the only ground for it. But it lies in the nature of the calling of the angels (nomen officii) to be the mediating element, mediators of the divine revelations; hence to be in general what constitutes the prophetic office also (Hag_1:13), but quite specially what belongs to the employment of a priest (Mal_2:7). If, however, according to Num_16:5, the priests are those whom Jehovah permits to come near to Him, are called the קרובים (an explanatory designation having the same letters as the cherubim), and if their proper work is the bringing near of the sacrifices, then their mediation lies especially in the direction from Israel to Jehovah; while, on the other hand, the mediation of the angels has its sphere in the other direction, and that exclusively, viz. from God to man, and so they are called “messengers, ambassadors,” and in accordance therewith a doctrine is framed with regard to them in Heb_1:14. The perfection of the idea of mediation, where the two directions met, was brought about through Him in whom the divine sending is a self-manifestation of God, and the priestly character is a self-sacrifice of humanity (1Ti_2:5). Now Jehovah appears in His angel κατ̓ ἐξοχήν, just as on the other side the priestly order represents Israel, the nation of priests, and its head, the high priest, represents the Israelitish order of priests. There would thus be a prefiguration in vision of the perfected mediation in the Angel of Jehovah here in priestly office as well as priestly clothing (“the noble white form of peace,” Umbreit).
6. “We must consider this as beforehand probable,” remarks Hengstenberg, “because the Angel of the Lord is represented elsewhere also as the leading personality in the great divine judgments, which are executed in the interests of the kingdom of God. He it was, e.g., who as the destroying angel slew the first-born of Egypt, Exo_12:23.” “There lies at the foundation the old picture of the Egyptian passover, but transfigured in the prophetic spirit. As there the destroying angel appeared as the Deliverer of the covenant-people, so here he appears as the Shield of the ideal theocracy, of those truly faithful to God among His people (Eze_9:4 sqq.), as the Avenger of ungodliness on the apostate theocracy (Eze_10:2; Eze_10:7). Both things serve one object, the true welfare of the covenant-people” (Häv.).
7. For the typical allusion to Christ the following points are enumerated by the ancients: (1) The human form, as having respect to the incarnation as well as to His powerful mediation; (2) that He is “one,” 1Ti_2:5; (3) that He is found in the midst, as it were as a prince, pointing to the kingly majesty and dignity of Christ; (4) the linen garment, the symbol of innocence, purity, of priesthood, etc.; (5) that He carries no weapon of destruction, but inscribes the elect in the book of life. In reference to the last, Hengstenberg expresses himself as follows: “It admits of question whether the inkhorn serves at the same time for inscribing the names in the book of life, of which mention is first made in Exo_32:32 (Psa_69:28; Rev_20:12). It is, of course, probable, especially taking into account the fundamental passage, Isa_4:3. According to this view, the inscribing the names in the book of life is to be looked upon as the primary thing, the marking of the foreheads simply as a consequence.”
8. Bähr (ii. p. 75) explains the priestly linen garment as symbolizing at once salvation and life and righteousness, which appears to suit only the commission to spare (Eze_9:4), just as he explains the garment of purity as referring to those who had kept themselves pure from the defilement of Jerusalem’s trespass.
9. The well-known Shechinah of Jewish tradition is equivalent to the glory of Jehovah (Joh_1:14). If the former is to be regarded more strictly as a cloud, and the latter more as a brightness of light or fire, yet the latter is to be conceived of in closest connection with the former. That this symbol of the presence of Jehovah was a permanent thing above the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies, as was for the most part the view of the older theology along with the Jewish tradition, cannot be drawn from the Scripture passages referring to the subject. Lev_16:2 is not indeed to be explained, with Bähr (i. 395 sq.), Winer, and others, by Lev_9:13, but neither does it fix (as Hengst., Keil) such a wonderful manifestation of the divine glory for the great day of atonement, and in fact also for the whole after period of the Solomonic temple; but it is to be understood simply in connection with the cloud of guidance during the journey through the wilderness, Exo_13:21 sq., 14:24; Num_14:14; Neh_9:12; Neh_9:19; Exo_40:36 sqq., Exo_33:9; Num_12:5; Deu_31:15; Num_9:15 sqq.; Exo_19:9; Exo_25:22. The phenomenon on the occasion of the consecration of the tabernacle and of the temple (Exodus 40.; 1 Kings 8.) was an extraordinary one. Comp. the reasons against a permanence of such a presence of God in Bähr (i. 397). Comp. also Herzog (xiii. p. 476 sq.); and as to the controversy during last century, see the literature in Winer, Realw.; Keil, Archäol. § 21, i. p. 115.
10. The idea which was symbolized by the ark of the covenant in the most holy place is indisputably that of a throne, however much the immediate object was in reality to be an ark (chest) for the law of the covenant. The purpose of the ark was accomplished with the two tables of stone. The idea of the throne was illustrated by the two cherubim. The two cherubic ornaments correspond with the two tables of the law, as these latter, with the capporeth, represent the dualism of the righteousness and mercy of God, which finds in the blood of the sacrifices (Lev_17:11) its typical divine institution and promise of adjustment and harmony. The fact of the cherubim being joined in the closest manner to the capporeth strips it of the mere signification of a “cover” for the ark-chest, which already, apart from the destination of the capporeth, receives no countenance from its composition as being a plate wholly of gold. Delitzsch compares with it the heavenly רקיע in Eze_1:22. [כַּפֹּרֶת from Piel כִּפֶּר, in a causative sense: to make to cover (Gen_6:14), or intensively: to cover entirely, thoroughly, does not signify that the law of God was covered up, which would mean the covering up of God’s rights and righteousness, which are meant to be protected rather, but, as is at once understood of itself: that that sin which becomes manifest through the law finds covering before God, atonement on the capporeth (Lev_16:14).] It may certainly be admitted that the view, as it were, of a covering on the ark might have figuratively its point of transition to the idea of atonement. As, then, the ark guards the tables of the law, so the cherubim with their wings protect the capporeth, Exo_25:20. The manifested presence of Jehovah in righteousness and mercy as holy love is shiningly clear. Understanding the cherubim as the chajoth, as is the case here in Ezekiel, we have in them, in the shape of an ornament, the symbolization of the life of creation (Doctrinal Reflections, 12, p. 55), as it appears in a state of heavenly rest engaged in the worship of God, yet none the less ready always, in the way of active service, to glorify Him alike in judgment and in mercy. In actual fact they acknowledge the heavenly King in Israel, the Holy One of Israel, Jehovah, as the living Elohim of revelation (p. 40), the Most High over all. And when Delitzsch defines the difference thus: that the ark of the covenant as מֶרְכָּבָה (1Ch_28:18) is not so much a moveable, travelling throne, as the throne that is stationary and at rest, with this, of course, accords the circumstance that the double cherub on the capporeth as it were surrounds Him who is enthroned (Exo_25:22); but yet the circumstance is not to be overlooked, that the staves intended for removing the ark of the covenant were continually to remain in if (Exo_25:15). As regards the etymology of the word, we must reject that which has been attempted, after the analogy of the root gribh in the Sanscrit, from “greifen” (Eng. to grip, grasp) (Delitzsch: as those who lay hold of and carry forward the divine throne; or Fürst: like the Greek griffins and the Egyptian sphinxes as guardians), because a laying hold of is nowhere ascribed to the cherubim; and the fact that in Gen_3:24 they have to keep the way to the tree of life, is not to be derived from a peculiar quality as guardians, just as also we cannot, with Kurtz (Herzog, ii. p. 655), deduce therefrom a “task,” according to which paradise was “entrusted” to the cherub, and that he gave it back “into the hands of man, its original possessor,” having also “preserved beyond the flood its proper essence, the paradisiacal powers,” etc. Nothing of this has any place in Holy Scripture. What is said in Revelation 21, 22 reminds us (Eze_22:1 (?), 2) in some respects of what belongs to paradise, but is by no means paradise, but the holy city, New Jerusalem, the tabernacle of God with men (Eze_21:2-3), which by new creation (Eze_9:5) comes down from God out of the new heaven to the new earth. The cherubim do not inhabit (Gen_3:24) paradise, but “on the east of the garden of Eden,” consequently outside of it is found the Shechinah (וַיַּשְׁכֵּן), which exhibits Jehovah Elohim. The meaning of this is, that for man henceforth the glorious presence of God is outside paradise, and hence also the approach to the tree of life in the midst of paradise is denied to man. For Israel, life before God and God’s glorious presence are symbolized, as regards worship in the most holy place, specially by means of the atonement on the capporeth and the double cherub, as well as by means of the cloud during the journey in the wilderness, and on occasion of the dedication of Solomon’s temple. In reality, the life is restored for mankind when He whose body is the temple (Joh_2:21; Joh_1:14) could say on that great all-accomplishing day of atonement on Golgotha to the. thief: “Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (Luk_23:43). Moreover, we have to distinguish the historico-symbolic cherub, the cherub of worship, the cherub of prophetic vision, and the rhetorico-prophetic (Ezekiel 28.), as well as the cherub of poetry (Psalms 18.).
11. If the mark of the cross is the simplest exegesis of the תו, we must not merely say with Schmieder, that “this coincidence in any case remains ever memorable for the thoughtful observer of the ways of God, whose counsel has planned everything beforehand,” but it will also be interesting to mention what is analogous in different quarters. The Egyptian Apis was denoted by a white triangle (or square), the characteristic mark of the power of nature (or of the world). On the brow of the Indian Shiva is the picture of the fertilizing stream of the Ganges. Shiva’s or Vishnu’s mark is made on the brow of the Hindoo who has been cleansed in the holy water. The Japanese pilgrim to the temple of Tensjo Dai Sin gets as a token of indulgence a small square box, on which, in large characters, the name of the god is written, and which he carries home upon his forehead. If, according to the ancients (and the more recent mystics also), the four quarters of heaven, the flying fowl, the praying, the swimming, even the walking man, the rowing ship, the ploughing peasant, etc., the Egyptian key of Isis, the hammer of the god Thor, not to speak of the preparation of the paschal lamb,—if all these furnished a “silent prophecy pointing to Christ,” “the providential element may at all events (says Merz in Herzog, 8.) be acknowledged, that the putting to death of the world’s Redeemer must be accomplished by that very instrument of torture, which is capable, as no other is, of being made, represented, set up, and looked upon as a sign before all the world, and in all the world,” etc.
12. It is not Grotius, as Hengst. erroneously asserts, but Junius, who has already remarked that in Egypt it was the doorposts, here it is the foreheads, and that consequently while in the former ease it was still families, houses, here it is merely single individuals that come into consideration. As contrasted with Egypt, it is Israel which in this crisis of the world stands the test, in virtue of a cleansing by means of blood, of a purification from sin. For if God will impute sin, who shall stand? Here in Jerusalem, on the other hand, the question is as to the Israelite (Deu_6:8), who is so after the spirit and not after the flesh, as it is not all Israelites who are the true Israel. It is a crisis in a narrower sense, consequently a separation. Hence, also, over against the persons comes the person of the Lamb, just as in Mat_25:12 the “I know you not” is the decisive element. His mark brings about exemption from punishment in Jerusalem (Joe_2:32), while in Egypt it is the blood of the lamb (Exo_12:13; Exo_12:7). Whoever has not the Spirit of Christ is none of His. For, finally, the Spirit is the mark wherewith we are sealed, whereby we cry, Abba, Father (Rom_8:15; Rev_14:1).
13. “The marking” (observes Hengst., as already J. H. Mich.) “does not secure against any share in the divine judgment, for this would not correspond with the nature of the divine righteousness, as even the elect are affected in many ways by the prevailing corruption; it is merely a security against their being carried away with the wicked (Psa_28:3), against an evil death, and everything which would stand opposed to the rule that ‘all things work together for good to them that love God’ (Rom_8:28). Jeremiah is an example.” Comp. also Jer_39:16 sqq., 45:5.
14. One may, with Häv., find in the description of those to be spared (Eze_9:4) a characterizing of fidelity according to its negative side merely. They are the Protestants from the bottom of their hearts in Jerusalem. Moreover, the circumstance that they are described in such a way shows how oppressed they are by the corruption universally prevailing, so that their being spared in the judgment is at the same time a deliverance from the wicked (Psa_1:4 sqq.; Luk_18:7 sq.).
HOMILETIC HINTS
Eze_9:1. “Each one is to have his weapon in his hand, not merely by his side or on his shoulder, in order that he may strike out on every side immediately. The Chaldeans were as it were the executioners, the Jews the criminals, and the appointed time was come. When they shall say, It is peace! and reckon the evil day far from them, destruction shall come upon them swiftly” (B. B.).—“The visitation of grace brings salvation for the pious (Luke 1.), while the visitation in wrath is the portion of the ungodly (Psa_6:1-2)” (Stck.).
Eze_9:2. “Those who admonish are followed by the executioners, the prophets by the soldiers, the friends by the enemies” (Stck.).—“Although the Lord sends forth His angels of vengeance, yet the Angel of the covenant is with them, who watches over the children of God” (Tüb. B.).—“From this we deduce, in the first place, the effective threatening for the ungodly, that God has always servants who stand ready to obey Him; in the second place, the comfortable conviction, how even the unbelieving Chaldeans wage war under God’s commands, and must act in accordance therewith; and lastly, we see that God spares His elect. This is just God’s secret providence” (C.).—“The small number of believers need not surprise us; they have often been only few” (L.).—Thou seest how the Son of God at all times gathers for Himself by His word and Spirit a church chosen to everlasting life, and protects and upholds it (Heidelberg Cat. Qu. 54).—A contemplation at the altar, which is fitted to alarm us (by reminding us of our sin, by the thought of retributive punishment), which is meant to comfort us (by means of the atonement, by the act of sparing in the midst of the judgment).
Eze_9:1-3. The six and the seventh in their significance for the judgments of God.—The severity and the goodness of God.—Punishment and grace along with one another.
Eze_9:3. “The Jews imagined that God was, as it were, bound to the visible temple; but He shows them and us something different. If we imitate the Jews, our pretence of pure doctrine will likewise avail us nothing” (L.).
Eze_9:4. “The Holy Spirit is properly the true seal and mark wherewith believers are marked by God, and then the cross, so long as they are still in the Church militant” (B. B.).—“In Revelation 13. we find also a mark of the beast on the right hand or on the foreheads!” (L.)—How many a man bears his mark on his forehead!—We are not to make ourselves partakers of other men’s sins by our looking on with indifference, or by our silence even.—And yet, what power the example of a corruption that is universal exercises!—“If thou art a person in office, cease not to admonish; if thou art merely a private individual, then show at least thy displeasure at what is evil! Noah and Lot did not follow the fashion” (L.).—Fear of man and desire to please man influence many men.—First the eye looks, then the mouth smiles, then hands and feet act.—O what a characteristic mark the sighing of the heart is, of whose child one is! Comp. Rom_8:22-23; Rom_8:26.—But how is it that here there is no mention of prophesying, of casting out devils, or of mighty signs, no mention of men of singular sanctity? Well, in the case of such it may happen that the Lord does not know them, never has known them, as He knows His own. Mention is made only of souls who are in earnest alarm in such a world as this, or even in a Jerusalem. Let these be comforted.—“When the apostle (2Pe_2:7-8) commends the patience of Lot, he says that his soul was vexed so long as he lived in Sodom. He could not as a single man, one who was besides still a stranger, bring those who were so thoroughly depraved to be think themselves. He did not, however, himself become hardened amid the shamefulness of so many horrible deeds, but he sighed constantly before God, and was in continual sorrow. On the other hand, it is certainly a proof of great lethargy when we see that the holy name of God is despised, and yet feel no pain. Hence it is no wonder if we are involved in the punishments of those sins which we foster by our connivance. For that admonition is to be considered well, that the zeal of God’s house is to eat us up, arid that the reproaches of those who reproach God fall on us” (C.).—Those who are spared—a picture for the cabinet. Their outward and inward mark, according to Eze_9:4.
Eze_9:5 sqq. Where God’s grace is followed by God’s judgment, and where the former has been turned into lasciviousness, there the discoveries which we must make in ourselves or in others have something exceedingly strict, harsh, severe about them. Neither the remainder of life, the helplessness and weakness of age, nor the blooming freshness of youth in its vigour, nor its grace and beauty, nor even childlike innocence or honourable appearance, is spared.—The unsparing character of God’s judgments on the despisers of His grace, of His word (comp. Eze_9:10).—“The old take precedence of the young in the judgment, because they did not go before those younger ones in good example,” 2Ch_36:17 (B. B.).—But the beginning is made with the temple, which Christ also cleared first, before the Jewish land was cleared of the Jews.—On ministers, princes, lords, the rich, the distinguished, and on those whom foolish people are accustomed to regard with most envy,—on these God’s sword of justice when drawn falls first of all, or even most of all.—To stand near the house of God is a blessed and also a safe position; but it is also the most dangerous position if it is hypocrisy. Certainly in this case religion is no lightning-conductor, but what the tree is in the storm; those who are under it are sure to be struck dead.—A lie in God’s face, or under the name of truth, is a lie of the worst kind, bringing with it eternal death.—Those who go about with fire lose certainly the dread of fire, but so much the more readily perish by the fire.—“Ye shall not touch any one of those who have the mark on them, is certainly no small testimony on God’s part and no small privilege, of which one stands very much in need at the time of visitation in general judgments, or when God in a special way strikes all around us, since the heart very easily becomes desponding and timorous, distrustful and afraid. But believers must not use it for self-exaltation above others, but rather for true humiliation before God, and for joyful confidence toward Him in trouble and death” (B. B.).
Eze_9:7. “In other cases, those who hope to be spared flee for refuge to the temples and places of worship; but here this avails nothing; on the contrary, the slaying just begins there” (L.).—“First the teachers, then the hearers” (B. B.).
Eze_9:8. “Ah, Lord! is the voice of His servants, as they look at rampant ungodliness; at the approach of God’s judgments; while they call to repentance; as they make their daily supplication for the Church” (Stck.).—“However cruel the prophets might appear to the Jews because of their threatenings and rebukes, yet they were anything but their enemies, inasmuch as they not only felt intense solicitude, but also made fervent intercession for their people. Such was the case with Moses, with Samuel, with Jeremiah (Ezekiel 9)” (L.).—“So the hearts of believers are full of love, as we see in the case of Paul in Romans 9” (C.)
Eze_9:9. “Ungodly men come to know God only after His judgments, but not in the right way of conversion” (Lange).—“God does not answer all his doubts. For God does not free us from all the difficulties in which we are involved, but puts our modesty to the test. We are, however, to learn here not to weigh the judgments of God in our scales, because we Usually extenuate our sins; it is God’s business to sit in judgment on sin” (C.).—“We never sufficiently comprehend the justice of the divine judgments. We always overlook something in God’s judging, however just and right it is. Here the secret providence of God is to be taken into consideration” (L.).—When the cup is full, it runs over.
Eze_9:11. It is also an “It is finished” that closes the priestly as well as the judicial work, Joh_19:30 (Joh_4:34).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 clothed with linen-- (Dan 10:5; Dan 12:6-7). His clothing…
clothed with linen-- (Dan 10:5; Dan 12:6-7). His clothing marked his office as distinct from that of the six officers of vengeance; "linen" characterized the high priest (Lev 16:4); emblematic of purity. The same garment is assigned to the angel of the Lord (for whom Michael is but another name) by the contemporary prophet Daniel (Dan 10:5; Dan 12:6-7). Therefore the intercessory High Priest in heaven must be meant (Zac 1:12). The six with Him are His subordinates; therefore He is said to be "among them," literally, "in the midst of them," as their recognized Lord (Heb 1:6). He appears as a "man," implying His incarnation; as "one" (compare Ti1 2:5). Salvation is peculiarly assigned to Him, and so He bears the "inkhorn" in order to "mark" His elect (Eze 9:4; compare Exo 12:7; Rev 7:3; Rev 9:4; Rev 13:16-17; Rev 20:4), and to write their names in His book of life (Rev 13:8). As Oriental scribes suspend their inkhorn at their side in the present day, and as a "scribe of the host is found in Assyrian inscriptions accompanying the host" to number the heads of the slain, so He stands ready for the work before Him. "The higher gate" was probably where now the gate of Damascus is. The six with Him make up the sacred and perfect number, seven (Zac 3:9; Rev 5:6). The executors of judgment on the wicked, in Scripture teaching, are good, not bad, angels; the bad have permitted to them the trial of the pious (Job 1:12; Co2 12:7). The judgment is executed by Him (Eze 10:2, Eze 10:7; Joh 5:22, Joh 5:27) through the six (Mat 13:41; Mat 25:31); so beautifully does the Old Testament harmonize with the New Testament. The seven come "from the way of the north"; for it was there the idolatries were seen, and from the same quarter must proceed the judgment (Babylon lying northeast of Judea). So Mat 24:28.
stood--the attitude of waiting reverently for Jehovah's commands.
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brazen altar--the altar of burnt offerings, not the altar of incense, which was of gold. They "stood" there to imply reverent obedience; for there God gave His answers to prayer [CALVIN]; also as being about to slay victims to God's justice, they stand where sacrifices are usually slain [GROTIUS], (Eze 39:17; Isa 34:6; Jer 12:3; Jer 46:10).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–11 1. Cause them that have charge over the city…
1. Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near — Or, Draw nigh, ye that have the visitation of the city (Peshito and Hebrew differently pointed). This probably refers to the executioners (Davidson).
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–11 1. that have charge over the city] Lit. either…
1. that have charge over the city] Lit. either the “oversights” (overseers), or the “visitations” (visitants) of the city. The latter is most natural, “visitations” being said for “those who visit,” that is, the executioners (Jer_52:11). Cf. Isa_60:17 (officers). The verb may be rendered as A.V. Bring near, or Draw near (ch. Eze_36:8; Job_31:37). The perf., the executioners are at hand, is less suitable to the loud cry, and the immediate appearance of the seven men seems in response to the summons.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 (1) He cried also . . . with a…
(1) He cried also . . . with a loud voice.—The pronoun refers to the same Being as throughout the previous chapter. His nature is sufficiently shown by the prophet’s address to Him in Eze_9:8 : “Ah, Lord God!” The “loud voice” was to give emphasis to what is said; it is the natural expression of the fierceness of the Divine indignation and wrath.
Them that have charge over the city.—Not earthly officers, but those to whom God has especially entrusted the execution of His will concerning Jerusalem. The word is, no doubt, used often enough of human officers, but such sense is necessarily excluded here by the whole circumstances of the vision. Nor does the phrase “every man” at all indicate that they were human beings, the same expression being constantly used of angels (as in Gen_18:1-2; Jos_5:13; Jdg_13:11; Dan_8:16, &c), and the representation here being plainly that of angelic executioners of God’s wrath. They appear only in the light of the administrators of vengeance, the description of them being that each had “his destroying weapon in his hand.” This is repeated in the following verse.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 He cried, etc. The voice comes, as before, from…
He cried, etc. The voice comes, as before, from the human form, seen as a theophany, in the midst of the Divine glory. Cause them that have charge over the city. The noun is an abstract plural, commonly rendered "visitation". (Isa_10:3; Jer_11:23, and elsewhere) Here, however, it clearly stands for persons (just as we use "the watch" for "the watchmen"), and is so used in Isa_60:17; 2Ki_11:18. (Eze_44:11) The persons addressed are called "men," but they are clearly thought of as superhuman; like the angels who came to (Gen_19:1) like the angel with the drawn sword in 2Sa_24:16; 1Ch_21:16. His destroying weapon. The word clearly implies something different from a sword, but corresponds in its vagueness to the Hebrew. In ver. 2 the Hebrew for "slaughter weapon" implies an instrument for crashing into fragments, probably an axe or mace. A cognate word in Jer_51:20 is translated "battle axe," and the LXX gives that meaning here, as also does the margin of the RevisedVersion.
Ver. 2. Behold, six men, etc. The man clothed with linen brings the number up to the sacred number seven, as in Zec_4:10; Rev_1:16, 20 15:6. He is over them rather than among them, and answers to the scribe who appears so frequently in Assyrian sculptures, as the secretary who counts the prisoners that have been taken in battle. They come from the north, the region from which the vision of Eze_1:4 had come, in which, in the nearer vision of Eze_8:4, the prophet had seen the same glorious presence. They appear, i.e., as issuing from the Divine presence to do their work of judgment. Possibly. as in Jeremiah 1., there may be an allusive reference to the fact that the Chaldeans, as the actual instruments of their judgment, came from the same region. The gate in question was built by Jotham. (2Ki_15:35) The captain of the band is arrayed in the "white linen" of the hosts of heaven and of the priests on earth. (podhrhv in the LXX; comp. Lev_6:10 Lev_16:4; Eze_44:17; Dan_10:5 Dan_12:6) A writer"s inkhorn. Through all the changes of Eastern life this has been the outward sign of the scribe"s office. Here it is obviously connected with the oft-recurring thought of the books of life and death in the chancery of heaven. (Exo_32:32; Psa_69:28 Psa_139:16; Isa_4:3; Php_4:3) It was to be the work of this scribe (ver. 4) to mark such as were for death to death, such as were for life to life. The LXX, misunderstanding the Hebrew, or following a different text, gives, not "a writer"s inkhorn," but "a girdle of sapphire." With all the precision of one who knew every inch of the temple courts, the priest-prophet sees the visitants take their station beside the brazen altar, probably, as they came from the north, on the north side of it.
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HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES
Vers. 1-7. The hour of judgment.
As among men there are magistrates" sessions as well as the great assizes, so also God has seasons for the local administration of justice, as well as the final judgment. In fact, God is always upon his judicial seat, always meting out justice to the various orders of his creatures. If he ceased to judge, he would cease to rule.
I MARK THE SUPREMACY OF GOD"S JUDICIAL VOICE. The last chapter finished with the declaration, "Though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them;" this chapter begins with the statement, He cried in mine ears with a loud voice.
1. The season for prayer was exhausted. Examination of Israel"s case had terminated. The verdict had passed, and nothing now remained but execution. Prayer on the part of the condemned, at this point, would be merely a selfish thing. It would bring no good. It would be out of harmony with God"s plans and with righteous law.
2. The voice of God subjugates and overpowers all other voices. It is a voice of creation: "He spake, and it was done." It is a voice of life: "Awake thou that sleepest!" It is a voice of judicial destruction: "Depart, ye cursed, into outer darkness!" The voice that Ezekiel heard was a loud voice. The prophet could not question its reality nor mistake its utterance. It overcame the prophet"s unwillingness to hear judgment pronounced. It drowned all dissentient voices. Nothing was heard save this. "The voice of the Lord shaketh the mountains.
II GOD"S SERVANTS ARE FOUND AMONG ALL ORDERS OF CREATURES. This earth is not an isolated kingdom; it is a province of God"s great realm. The persons hers summoned to appear for the execution of Jehovah"s will are, without doubt, angels, though to the prophet"s vision they seemed in form like men. As we read of angels who are appointed the guardians of little children, so we learn that certain angels are ordained guardians of cities and nations. To Daniel the angel spake of "Michael, your prince great prince that standeth for the children of thy people." The history of the Hebrew people is full of instances in which the angels of God were despatched either for the rescue or for the destruction of men. The Most High is unchangeable; and inasmuch as a destroying angel had executed God"s vengeance on the idolators of Egypt, so now angels are employed to slay the idolaters in Israel. Yet there is singular economy in all God"s arrangements. The number of these officers of justice was six, so that one might issue from each of the six gates of the city. The ministers of vengeance shall neither be too many nor too few. Eventually the Chaldean armies should he God"s agents in the punishment of the Hebrews; still, these would act under the generalship of the heavenly principalities and powers.
III THE WORK OF JUSTICE PROCEEDS SIDE BY SIDE WITH THAT OF MERCY. Along with the six officers appointed to destroy was one differently clad, whose work was to save. His clothing was the attire of peace white lineni.e. the dress of a true priest. Against six destroyers there was one protector, which denoted how few was the number of the faithful. They were to have a distinguishing mark in the most conspicuous place in their foreheads. The owner of the flock will take care to put his own sign-manual on his sheep. "The Lord knoweth them that are his." In every time of trouble "he has hidden them in his pavilion in the secret of his tabernacle will he hide them." Noah and his family inthe ark; Lot and his daughters in Zoar; the early Christians sale in Pella when Jerusalem was destroyed; these are evidences of God"s special care of his chosen. He accounts them his jewels, and in times of danger holds them in the hollow of his hand. Not only had they not connived at the idolatry, but their souls were distressed on account of it. They had besought with tears their brethren to desist from the evil thing. Their holy zeal shall have a conspicuous reward.
IV GOD"S SERVANTS HAVE LIKE DISPOSITIONS WITH HIMSELF. God had described the emotions and purposes of his mind thus: "Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity." And now he requires his officers to cherish the selfsame sentiments: "Lot not your eye spare, neither have ye pity." To be a servant of God, and the executioner of his will, we must be like minded with himself. Only such does God employ on work of high importance. Eye and heart must be as God"s. Following the tendencies of natural temperament, some servants of God would be too lenient, some too harsh. In such matters we must be sure that we arc doing God"s will, not indulging our own. Private spleen, and merely natural bias, must be completely repressed. Our feeling and temper and will must be chastened by almighty grace, in order that we may be the servants of God. His will must find a full response in our will.
V RETRIBUTION IS EQUITABLE AND COMPLETE. There is no miscarriage of justice in God"s court, and in his retributions there is no excess. The equity of the destruction is seen in that it begins at the sanctuary. The ringleaders in rebellion shall be foremost in the punishment. That sacred place is sacred no longer. God has withdrawn his presence; therefore all privilege is extinguished. It had been a sanctuary for the oppressed, for the unfortunate, for the fugitive in war; but it shall be no refuge for rebels defiant against God no refuge for sin. Mere sentiment about the traditional sacredness of the place must yield to sterner virtues must yield to practical and primitive righteousness. Better that everysanctuary of religion be defiled with bloodshed, than that they be nests of immorality, cesspools of vice! If the reality be gone, it is a common injury to maintain the appearance. And God"s retributions will be complete. They will spare none. We may hesitate respecting the justice of destroying "little children;" yet we can repose confidently on the bosom of the eternal Father, and say, "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" To our limited view the administration of supreme justice may sometimes be veiled in "clouds and darkness;" but we can afford to wait the fuller disclosures of the truth. "What we know not now, we shall know hereafter. D.
HOMILIES BY W. JONES Vers. 1-7. Divine discrimination in the execution of judgment.
cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near," etc. In the preceding chapter the various forms of idolatry which were practised in Jerusalem, and by which the Lord Jehovah was provoked, were set forth; and now Ezekiel beholds in vision the treatment which God was about to deal out to the people by reason of their provocations. We observe
I THAT THE AGENTS OF GOD"S JUDGMENTS ARE EVER READY TO EXECUTE HIS COMMANDS. "He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand," etc. (vers. 1, 2). Instead of "Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near," Hengstenberg translates, "The visitations of the city draw near;" and Schroder, "Near are the visitations of the city." These six must be angels, heavenly watchers over the city; or, perhaps, as Bunsen says, "the punishing and destroying angels," who are now to execute the Divine retribution. They are spoken of as men, because they appeared in human form, in which form angels appeared unto Abraham. (Gen_18:2) That they were angels is evident also from the fact that they formed the retinue of the "man in their midst, clothed in linen," who is "no other than the angel of the Lord, and whom we never see accompanied with any other retinue than that of the lower angels; compare for example Zec_1:11, etc., and Jos_5:14, where the angel of the Lord designates himself as prince of the host of the Lord". (Hengstenberg) Many have been the conjectures as to the significance of the number of these angels. The true explanation seems to be that, with the angel of the Lord, they made the sacred number seven. (cf. Zec_3:9; Rev_5:6) They were the executioners of the judgments of God upon the guilty inhabitants of the favoured city. And they were to execute it under the direction of "the man clothed in linen." For we have to regard him "not alone as appointed to the work of delivering the pious not as standing in opposition to the six ministers of righteousness. The protection of the pious is his privilege; but the work of vengeance also stands under his control. The six are to be regarded as absolutely subordinate to him, executing the work of destruction only by his order and under his authority" (ibid.). After the execution of the judgment in this chapter, he said, "I have done as thou hast commanded me" (ver. 11). And in Eze_10:2, Eze_10:7, he is expressly represented as the agent of the Most High in the burning of the city. Now, these angelic beings may be said to have been the agents, and the Chaldeans the instruments, in the work of slaughter. Soon as they were required for that work they were promptly at hand. And soon as they received their commands "they went forth, and slew in the city." Many are the agents and instruments which God employs; and when he summons them, they quickly respond to his call. When he commanded, the flood of waters overwhelmed the old world; and the flood of fire consumed the cities of the plain; and the earth yawned and engulfed the rebels against Moses and Aaron. In his judgments upon Egypt, frogs and flies, locusts and hail, were his ready instruments. (cf. Ps 68 148:8)
II IN THE EXECUTION OF HIS JUDGMENTS GOD DISCRIMINATES BETWEEN THE TWO GREAT DIVISIONS OF MORAL CHARACTER. "And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer"s inkhorn by his side; and the Lord said unto him," etc. (vers. 6). Thus in this judgment certain persons were to be spared, while the rest were cut off; and provision was made for sparing them. How were they to be divided? Upon what principle was the awful separation to be made?
1. The discrimination is in moral character. There are those who represent the great division of men as a matter of Divine choice, altogether irrespective of human character or conduct. They say that men are elect or non-elect and reprobate solely because of the determinations of the Divine will. Certainly it is not so in this case. In the Divine estimation the essential division of men is not material, social, or intellectual, but moral. Mark the character here indicated of the men who are to be preserved: "The men that sigh and cry for all the abominations, that be done in the midst" of the city.
(1) Men who deeply grieved because of sin. They "sighed for all the abominations," etc. They did not participate in them, or regard them as trivial, or treat them with indifference; but were burdened by them, and mourned over them. Thus have holy men in all ages been afflicted by sin. (2Pe_2:7, 2Pe_2:8; Psa_119:53, Psa_119:136, 158 139:21; Ezr_9:3) And thus our blessed Lord was deeply moved by the wickedness and woe of men. (cf. Luk_13:34 Luk_19:41-44)
(2) Men who gave expression to their grief because of sin. "That cry or groan all the abominations," etc. Their sorrow found audible utterance. It was not concealed, but manifest. Their cries and groans indicated the oppression of their souls. "It argues strength of grace," says Greenhill, "to mourn for others" sins. Censuring and reproaching of others for their sins argues strength of corruption; and mourning for them argues strength of grace, a sound spiritual constitution. Such a one was in Christ; he prayed because of the hardness of others" hearts." (Mar_3:5) Such are the characters who were to be spared in the great slaughter.
2. The discrimination is made in infinite wisdom. "And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer"s inkhorn by his side," etc. (vers. 3, 4). Some think that the inkhorn was to be used for registering the names in the book of life, and making the mark upon the forehead. And as to the character of the mark, many contend that it was in the form of a cross. But the entire proceeding appears to be symbolical. We know that it took place in vision; and this marking upon the forehead was not to be an actual external thing, but it was a figurative setting forth of the truth that in the general slaughter certain persons would be safe, they would be guarded by the omniscient and omnipotent providence of God. Now, this discrimination was infallible. The man with the inkhorn is no other than he who "knew all men, and needed not that any one should testify of man; for he himself knew what was in man." His knowledge is infinite, both in its minuteness and in its comprehensiveness. And in the final judgment, which is committed unto him, there will be no mistake. To him every man"s character will be manifest as if written upon his forehead; and he will read it with unerring accuracy.
3. The discrimination leads to most momentous issues. "And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite," etc. (vers. 5, 6). They who had the mark upon their foreheads were exempted from the awful judgments, while they who had it not were subject unto them. The signed ones were perfectly secure; the unsigned were ruthlessly slaughtered. But were the godly actually preserved in the siege and capture of the city? We know that Jeremiah, Ebed-melech, and Baruch were. (Jer_39:16-18 Jer_45:5) But looking at the question more broadly Are the true and good exempted from the judgments which befall thewicked? In some instances they have been. Noah was saved when the ungodly world was drowned; Lot was rescued from the doomed cities of the plain; the Israelites escaped the plagues which fell upon the Egyptians; and ere the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans the Christians had escaped to the little town of Pella, in Persia. But, to quote the words of Dr. Payson, "it will perhaps be said that many of the most bold and faithful servants of God and opposers of vice have suffered even unto blood, striving against sin. We grant it, but still it is true that the mark of God was upon them. It appeared in those Divine consolations which raised them far above suffering and the fear of death, and enabled them to rejoice and glory in tribulation. Did not Stephen exhibit this mark, when his murderers saw his face as it had been the face of an angel? Did not Paul and Silas display it, when at midnight their joy broke forth, in the hearing of their fellow prisoners, in rapturous ascriptions of praise? Did not some of the martyrs display it, when they exclaimed in the flames, "We feel no more pain than if reposing on a bed of roses"?" So far as the outward event is concerned, the righteous and the wicked have often been swept away in one common calamity; but wide has been the difference of their inward experiences in such calamities. Nothing befalls the godly but what they shall be sustained under, and it shall be overruled for their good. In the gracious providence of God "all things work together for good to them that love" him. "Who is he that will harm you if ye be zealous of that which is good?" It is eternally true that "righteousness tendeth to life; and he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death." In the last great assize the wicked "shall go away into eternal punishment; but the righteous into eternal life.
III THAT THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD FALL FIRST UPON THOSE WHO HAVE PERVERTED THE RICHEST PRIVILEGES. "Slay utterly and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house." The ancient men, or elders, are those mentioned in Eze_8:16 as standing "with their faces toward the east," worshipping the sun. They had practised their idolatry nearest to the sanctuary of the Most High; and they were the first to be slain. As ancient men, elders, they occupied a position of honour and privilege, and should have used their influence to keep the people faithful to the Lord their God; but they had set an example of idolatry, and they were to be made the first example of judgment. "Begin at my sanctuary the place where the highest privileges had been neglected or perverted, where priests had proved treacherous to their trust, and where God was dishonoured. "To stand near the house of God is a blessed and also a safe position; but it is also the most dangerous position, if it is hypocrisy. Certainly in this case religion is no lightning conductor, but what the tree is in the storm; those who are under it are sure to be struck dead" (Schroder)
CONCLUSION.
1. Let those who are eminent in position and privileges endeavour to beeminent also in principle and piety.
2. Let every one ask himself Am I of the character of those who werespared in this stern judgment? W.J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 8, 9, 11 One man among them was clothed with linen.
Eze_9:1-2
One man among them was clothed with linen.
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Christ the Commander of the angels
1. Elect Jews under the law were saved by the mediatorial work of Christ incarnate, as we are under the Gospel. Christ frequently appeared as man, intimating thereby His future incarnation, and that that nature must concur to the making up of His mediatorship: He did not mediate for them as God, for us as man; but He mediated then as man promised, now He mediates as man manifested.
2. The Lord Christ is the chief commander of all angelical and human forces. He was in the midst of these six military angels that were to bring in the Chaldean forces at the several gates of the city; He was their General.
3. When judgments are abroad, and the godly are in danger, Christ mediates and intercedes for them.
4. Christ hath a special care of His in times of trouble; He appears with an inkhorn to write down what is said and done against them, to make known the mind of God to them, to seal and discriminate them from others.
5. Those who are upon great and public designs should begin with God, and consult with Him. These seven here go in and stand by the altar, inquire of God what His pleasure is. So have the worthies of God done (Ezr_8:21).
6. Those who are employed by the Lord must be careful that they countenance no corruptions in worship. Neither Christ nor the angels would come at the false altar, which Ahaz had caused to be set up; but they go to Gods altar, the brazen altar; by this they stood, not the other.
7. In times of judgment, as God discountenances false worship, so He discovers and countenances His own way of worship. (W. Greenhill, M. A.)
With a writers inkhorn.--
The man with the inkhorn
(to young men):--This man with the inkhorn may stand for a class--the whole class of writers and literary men. I would start from the position that the powers of literature belong of right to Jesus Christ, and that literature is included among those things of which Paul said to the Christian man: All are yours, for ye are Christs, and Christ is Gods.
I. The close relation that exists between Christianity and literature.
1. One fact that meets us on the very threshold is this, that, humanly speaking, the Bible itself is a literary product. Had there been no such thing as literature there never could have been a Bible; for no one would have been able either to write or to read. As our Lord Jesus glorified the human body by His inhabitation of it in the Incarnation, so we may say literature is transfigured and glorified by this special inhabitation of the Divine Spirit in the books of the Old and New Testaments.
2. But, passing beyond the pages of the Bible, we see again how Christ-loving men have used the powers of literature for the advancement of Gods kingdom in the world. In the early days of the Church, Christianity owed very much to the literary gifts of men like Origen and Chrysostom, Tertullian and Augustine. And when we see the great days of the Reformation dawning upon Europe, there is no doubt that we must associate that marvellous spiritual revival with the previous Revival of Letters. Luther was indebted for his knowledge of Greek to those Greek scholars who, after the Fall of Constantinople, came flocking to the West, and who spread abroad that interest in the Greek language and literature which by and by sent men back once more to the neglected pages of the Greek New Testament. And so we see Luther sitting all alone through the midnight hours in his high tower of the Wartburg Castle, in the very heart of the great Thuringian Forest. Before him lies his open Bible, and from the closest study of its pages he is seeking to apprehend the very mind of his Lord. When I was in the Wartburg some years ago I was shown the place on the wall which was struck by the famous inkhorn that Luther flung at the Devil. Luther did discomfit the devil with an inkhorn; but it was by that translation of the Bible which came from his pen, and which is still one of the masterpieces of German literature, and by those other writings which shook the hearts of men like a mighty trumpet blast, and destroyed, in most European lauds, the awful domination of Rome.
3. But, when we speak of literature, we have to go beyond the Bible, and beyond all purely religious writings. We have to think of that great world of books which includes history and science, philosophy, poetry, and fiction. And may we not say that the best books in those various departments, whether written by Christian men or not, are all of them full of facts and principles that really illustrate and corroborate the teaching of the Bible?
II. Some friendly counsels which are suggested by this subject.
1. First, let me put the old apostolic injunction which Paul addressed to a young friend, Give attendance to reading. All around us there is a great and growing devotion to athletic interests, which threatens in many cases to swallow up all interests of a higher kind. Now, bodily exercise is profitable, without doubt; but it cannot be profitable to exercise the body until we have no time or strength left for the cultivation of the mind. You must read diligently, eagerly, carefully, if you would enlarge and enrich and strengthen your mind. And let me exhort you here to begin to form a little library of your own as early as possible. Do not be content with borrowing books, but have your favourite authors around you in your own room. A young man, says one, may lodge in a very small room. But what do you mean by a small room? When I go into a young mans room, and see on the wall a shelf of books; when I take down Shakespeare, or Dante, or Tennyson, or Carlyle, I do not know the size of that room. The walls are nothing, for that man holds the ends of the earth. For every taste like literature, or art, or science, or philosophy, is a window in the smallest room, and through the windows a man can see anything, right on to the throne of God.
2. Next, I would say, take heed what you read. The world is full of bad books, as well as of good books, for the man with the inkhorn, in not a few cases, has sold himself to the service of the Devil. Beware of bad books! If a book fills your mind with evil thoughts, or leaves a bad taste in your mouth, cast it from you at once. Why should a man feed his soul on filth and garbage, when he is free to walk through the garden of the Lord, plucking all manner of pleasant fruits? And, apart from what is positively bad, do not spend too much time on what is scrappy or ephemeral. There are diversities of gifts, and diversities of taste. Provided you confine yourself to what is wholesome, whatever interests you most will be likely to profit you most. But do not forget that the Bible must come first.
3. Let me remind you that, as Christian young men, you should consecrate to Christ all the knowledge that you gain, and should use it as far as possible for the benefit of others. Remember, after all, that life is more than literature, and that Christianity is greater even than the Bible. Mohammedanism is the religion of a book, for above Mohammed himself stands the Koran. But Christianity is not the religion of a book: it is the religion of a life. Jesus Christ Himself is the Alpha and Omega of it, and it is love to Jesus, loyalty to Jesus, the service of Jesus, that are the true marks of a Christian. (J. G. Lambert, B. D.)
The writers inkhorn
No one ever had such Divine dreams as Ezekiel. In a vision this prophet had seen wrathful angels, destroying angels, each with a sword, but in my text he sees a merciful angel with an inkhorn. The receptacle for the ink in olden time was made out of the horn of a cow, or a ram, or a roebuck, as now it is made out of metal or glass, and therefore was called the inkhorn, as now we say inkstand. We have all spoken of the power of the sword, of the power of wealth, of the power of office, of the power of social influence, but today I speak of the power for good or evil in the inkstand. It is a fortress, an armoury, a gateway, a ransom, or a demolition. You mistake, says someone, it is the pen that has the power. No, my friend; what is the influence of a dry pen? Pass it up and down a sheet of paper, and it leaves no mark. It expresses no opinion. It gives no warning. It spreads no intelligence. It is the liquid which the pen dips out of the inkstand that does the work. Here and there a celebrated pen, with which a Magna Charta or a Declaration of Independence, or a treaty was signed, has been kept in literary museum or national archives, but for the most part the pens have disappeared, while the liquid which the pens took from the inkstand remains in scrolls which, if put together, would be large enough to enwrap the round world.
1. First, I mention that which is purely domestic. The inkstand is in every household. It awaits the opportunity to express affection or condolence or advice. Father uses it; mother uses it; the sons and daughters use it. It tells the home news; it announces the marriage, the birth, the departure, the accident, the last sickness, the death. That home inkstand, what a mission it has already executed, and what other missions will it yet fulfil! May it stand off from all insincerity and all querulousness. Oh, ye who have with recent years set up homes of your own! out of the new home inkstand write often to the old folks, if they be still living. A letter means more to them than to us, who are amid the activities of life, and to whom postal correspondence is more than we can manage. As the merciful angel of my text appeared before the brazen altar with the inkhorn at his side in Ezekiels vision, so let the angel of filial kindness appear at the altars of the old homestead.
2. Furthermore, the inkstand of the business man has its mission. Between now and the hour of your demise, O commercial man, O professional man, there will not be a day when you cannot dip from the inkhorn a message that will influence temporal and eternal destiny. There is a rash young man running into wild speculation, and with as much ink as you can put on the pen at one time you may save him from the Niagara rapids of a ruined life. On the next street there is a young man started in business, who through lack of patronage, or mistake in purchase of goods, or want of adaptation, is on the brink of collapse. One line of ink from your pen will save him from being an underling all his life, and start him on a career that will win him a fortune which will enable him to become an endower of libraries, an opener of art galleries, and builder of churches.
3. Furthermore, great are the responsibilities of the authors inkhorn. When a bad book is printed you do well to blame the publisher, but most of all blame the author. The malaria rose from his inkstand. The poison that caused the moral or spiritual death dropped in the fluid from the tip of his pen. But blessed be God for the authors inkhorn in ten thousand studies which are dedicated to pure intelligence, highest inspiration, and grandest purpose. They are the inkstands out of which will be dipped the redemption of the world. The destroying angels with their swords seen in Ezekiels vision will be finally overcome by the merciful angel with the writers inkhorn. Among the most important are the editorial and reportorial inkstands. You have all seen what is called indelible ink, which is a weak solution of silver nitrate, and that ink you cannot rub out or wash out. Put it there, and it stays. Well, the liquid of the editorial and reportorial inkstands is an indelible ink. It puts upon the souls of the passing generations characters of light or darkness that time cannot wash out and eternity cannot efface. Be careful how you use it. While you recognise the distinguished ones who have dipped into the inkstand of the worlds evangelisation, do not forget that there are hundreds of thousands of unknown men and women who are engaged in inconspicuous ways doing the same thing! How many anxious mothers writing to the boys in town! How many sisters writing encouragement to brothers far away! How many bruised and disappointed and wronged souls of earth would be glad to get a letter from you! Stir up that consolatory inkhorn. All Christendom has been waiting for great revivals of religion to start from the pulpits and prayer meetings. I now suggest that the greatest revival of all time may start from a concerted and organised movement through the inkhorns of all Christendom, each writer dipping from the inkhorn nearest him a letter of Gospel invitation, Gospel hope, Gospel warning, Gospel instruction. The other angels spoken of in my text were destroying angels, and each had what the Bible calls a slaughter weapon in his hand. It was a lance, or a battle axe, or a sword. God hasten the time when the last lance shall be shivered, and the last battle axe dulled, and the last sword sheathed, never again to leave the scabbard, and the angel of the text, who Matthew Henry says was the Lord Jesus Christ, shall from the full inkhorn of His mercy give a saving call to all nations. That day may be far off, but it is hopeful to think of its coming. Is it not time that the boasted invention of new and more explosive and more widely devastating weapons of death be stopped forever, and the Gospel have a chance, and the question be not asked, How many shots can be fired in a minute? but how many souls may be ransomed in a day? Hail, Thou Mighty Rider of the white horse in the final triumph! Sweep down and sweep by, Thou Angel of the New Covenant, with the inkhorn of the worlds evangelisation! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 8 (2.) THE JUDGMENT UPON THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM (Chap.…
(2.) THE JUDGMENT UPON THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM (Chap. 9)
1. The guards of the city and their work (Eze_9:1-7)
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EXEGETICAL NOTES.—This chapter is closely connected with the preceding, and carries expressly the threatening of Eze_8:18 into immediate action. Ministers of the Lord, waiting on Him, are summoned to execute His purposes.
Eze_9:1. The prophet is made a hearer of the summons. “And He called in mine ears with a loud voice;” the mode of speaking is a copy of that in Eze_8:18. There is a sense in which God treats men as they treat Him: “As I cried and they would not hear, so they cried and I would not hear.” Moreover, the minute details as to the ears and pitch of voice are significant of the realistic character of the vision. It was not ϗ marvellous but shadowy experience through which Ezekiel was passing. He accents the fact that the smallest as the greatest items were well defined; while the loudness of the voice is a token both of the strong emotion of the Lord and the importance to be attached to the events about to happen. “Saying, Come near, ye that have charge of the city.” The phrase, ye that have charge, is a translation of a Hebrew word rendered elsewhere office, visitation, oversight, and those holding office, officers (Isa_60:17). Accepting this last rendering as applicable here, we have to think of overseers, watchers, guards (Dan_4:13; Dan_10:20), who attend to the execution of the sentences of God. They were armed, “each man with his instrument of destruction in his hand.” “No common earthly weapon is suitable to the hands of such an host.”—Haev.
Eze_9:2. At the summons, “six men came” from the same quarter as the glory (chap. Eze_1:4), and from which the earthly armies were to proceed as instruments of the heavenly powers. The weapon of each is named differently from the name in Eze_9:1; here it is “an instrument of demolition.” Interpretation of the number six—parts of the city, military Chaldean divisions, &c.—is superfluous. It is immediately shown that the number of watchers was the sacred, perfect number. “And one man in their midst clothed with linen.” He was not one of the six, but a seventh man and superior to the others. They go after him; he marks before they strike (Eze_9:5). The material which clothes him is like that of the various parts of the high priest’s dress (Lev_16:4), and is supposed by many to signify that this seventh man had a high-priestly function. This is doubtful, and all that we need ascribe to the texture of his garments is that it represented a heavenly messenger of the Lord specially commissioned. So it is set forth in Daniel (Eze_10:5 and Eze_12:6), and it may be that the idea symbolised by linen had by this time attributed to it a wider application, preparing for that universal application which the New Testament ratifies. “The armies which are in heaven followed, clothed in fine linen, white and pure.” “It was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure.” The seventh had not a destroying weapon: he is to carry out another procedure besides that of slaughter; so he had “an inkhorn upon his loins.” “It is still customary in the East to wear the inkhorn in the girdle. Scribes wear them constantly in their girdles, and ministers of state wear them in the same manner, as symbols of their office.”—Kitto. The purport of these writing materials is, in accordance with the custom of registering the names of the Israelites in public rolls, that he may write certain names in the book of life—the names of those on whom he is to place a mark. Who is this distinguished watcher? “In Dan_10:5 we have the appearance of a man clothed in linen, who is manifestly the same as He whom John describes as the Son of man clothed with a garment down to his feet (Rev_1:13). This One man, then, was the angel of the covenant, the great High Priest, superior to those by whom He was surrounded, receiving direct communication from the Lord, taking the coals of vengeance from between the cherubim (Eze_10:2), but coming with mercy to the contrite as well as with vengeance to the impenitent; who took upon Him the form of a man … who came to send fire upon the earth, but also to call sinners to repentance; who shall lose none of those whom the Father hath given Him”.—Speaker’s Com. “And they came and stood beside the brazen altar;” they were waiting in reverence and readiness in the very spot where sin had reached its worst form (Eze_8:16), to fulfil that which would be commanded.
It is by no means to be understood “that there is a band of seven angels whose special vocation it is to be the watchmen and guardians of Jerusalem. For the number seven is here, as elsewhere in the Old Testament, the sign that a divine operation is being completed—in this passage the divine judgment, now advancing to its close—and there is no necessity for having recourse to the seven planet gods of the Babylonians, &c.… The seventh angel, of special dignity, corresponds to the horseman who, in the vision of Zec_1:8, stands among the myrtle trees which symbolise the covenant people, and is evidently the chief over those who run to and fro through the earth. It is very remarkable that, as Baumgarten very justly observes, this angel, in whom is the name of Jehovah, withdraws from the history of revelation so long as Israel is under a visible ruler of the house of David; but now, when this visible rule is abrogated, an invisible Ruler again appears, and attains a more concrete form, combined with personal agency, though at the same time hypostatically distinguished from God.”—Oehler.
Eze_9:3. An ominous symbol appears. “And the glory of the God of Israel rose up from the cherub upon which it was.” The cherub, corresponding to living creature (chap. Eze_1:20), is used for cherubim. These forms over the mercy-seat constituted the throne of the glory, the place where His honour dwelt; but the Temple having been made a scene on which His glory was given to idols, He retires “to the threshold.” He rises up to scatter His enemies, and at the place of egress from the Temple to open ground, He issues His commands for the seven guards in reference to His sentences on the people.
Eze_9:4. A command is given to the leader, so that mercy should precede judgment. “And the Lord said to him, Go through the midst of the city … and mark a mark.” Such a marking, as a religious and separating sign, has been customary in various countries, and is especially conspicuous upon the foreheads of the Hindus. The mark may be an honour or a dishonour, according as it separates for the living God or from God. Here it is a token of the former. The word translated “mark” is the name-word of the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, tau. The oldest form of this letter is said to be that of a cross, T; and from this statement sundry of the fathers and others have drawn, very unnecessarily, recondite meanings and pious conclusions. That the mark would be a definite one is obvious—how else could the six smiters know whom to pass by?—but what its shape was who can specify? It was “not a mark to be actually imprinted and seen upon their persons, but was an indication of the place they held in the watchful oversight and directing agency of God.”—Fairbairn. “upon the foreheads of the men,” there it would be distinctly seen and betoken the character before God. It separated from the mass of the people. In Egypt a mark of blood was made on the doorposts of the Israelites—their deliverance was that of families; here the mark was on the forehead—the salvation is that of individuals. The difference is one of the proofs, which Ezekiel elsewhere incidentally presents, that a new principle of God’s dealings was on the way to establishment. The individual and not the nation was to be the point of His operations in the latter days. In relation to this “mark,” the “Speaker’s Commentary” says, “The sign of the cross in baptism is an outward sign of the designation of God’s elect, who at the last day shall be exempted from the destruction of the ungodly (Mat_24:22; Mat_24:31).” Patristic legends are apparently not yet extinct! How different from this inept comment is that which Keil gives, though he translates tau by cross: “There is something remarkable in this coincidence to the thoughtful observer of the ways of God, whose counsel has carefully considered all beforehand, especially when we bear in mind that, in the counterpart to this passage (Rev_7:3), the seal of the living God is stamped upon the foreheads of the servants of God who are to be exempted from the judgment, and that according to Rev_14:1, they had the name of God written upon their foreheads.” Very different indeed from “the sign of the cross!” “that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof.” This is the criterion by which the writer will know those whom he has to mark. In secret and in public they grieve over the evils which are rife in the land.
Eze_9:5-6. A command is given to the six, “Go in the city after him and smite,” so as to make an utter end, sparing neither age nor sex. One special exception is made. No other class is recognised but two. In a testing time like this there is no possibility of holding the place of neutrals; “and every man upon whom is the mark touch not;” their tears, and words of prayer and reproof because of sin, show that they are on the Lord’s side. He is pledged to preserve His own; “He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye.” There is here no guarantee against all kinds of sorrow and sufferings. Lot is rescued from Sodom, but he has to incur loss and the pain of dissevered family ties. Jeremiah had to pass through deep waters of affliction during the period in which the six watchers were cutting down the unworthy. The exemption of the marked ones must be considered as referring only to direct strokes of punishment. “The marking secures not against any share in the divine judgments; this would not correspond with the nature of the divine righteousness, as even the elect are in many ways affected with the prevailing corruption (comp. Isa_6:5): it secures only against being swept away with the wicked, against an evil death, and all that would stand in contradiction with the rule, ‘that all things work together for good to them that love God.’ ”—Hengstenberg. “and begin at my sanctuary,” in it the abominations had found their normal expression. The head and front of the offence against the holy God was exhibited there. It had lost the reality and must be deprived of the semblance of holiness. The watchers inflict their first strokes in it and beat down the men who stood with backs to the altar while worshipping the creature; “they began with the men, the elders who were before the house;” they were not called elders (chap. Eze_8:16), but their representative position may suggest that they were so; and “before the house” will refer not to the whole Temple, but to that portion which constituted its germ, as seems intimated in what follows.
Eze_9:7. “And He said unto them Defile the house,” by the bodies of the slain. If to touch a corpse and to worship without being sprinkled with the water of separation was to defile the tabernacle of the Lord (Num_19:13), much more would blood and corpses do so. But the execution of judgment was to extend beyond the inner place where the altar stood: “and fill the courts with slain.” Scarcely is the edict issued when it is obeyed, and the further order is added, “go forth.” “The expression has the air of military abruptness,” and despatches at once from the desecrated temple: “and they went forth and slew in the city.”
HOMILETICS
FEATURES OF DIVINE DISCIPLINARY GOVERNMENT
Over all the conditions in which persons or peoples act their parts God is King and Judge. Whether they worship Him or pay adoration to created things, whether they act in brotherliness or selfishness, He tests their character and passes sentences from which they may learn to do righteousness and hate iniquity. That they do not always learn is no more a proof against the discipline of God, than the belief of numberless men that the sun moves round the earth is a proof against the science of the works of God. And just as in the case of astronomy, He “waited six thousand years for an observer,” and, even since Kepler lived, myriads have not known the real position of the sun; so in the case of moral discipline, He has been giving here a little and there a little, and still His moral government is unrecognised by multitudes who are subjected to it. He is in no hurry on this account. He waits with patience, teaching as He waits and giving indications of the modes in which He deals with moral beings, as in this manifestation before Ezekiel.
I. Divine moral discipline involves the action of latent forces. Such forces exist. The seer is not aware of the contiguousness of the guards of the city. They are not within the field of his sight before the call to them is uttered. What they are, where they are, how they will act when they appear, are questions which can be answered only by the event. There are forces suitable for disciplinary ends in air, or earth, or sea, or the regions beyond, and the Lord can make them attend to His word. Storms, earthquakes, epidemics, armies may be poured forth, as soldiers from a fortress, to ravage a land and its people, and they will come from any quarter in which their germs have been stored, and will spread under the direction of spiritual powers who obey the God of glory. At the due moment He will summon them though He may have long time holden His peace.
They are multifold. At one time fiery flying serpents destroy the wandering Israelites and the plague at another. David is required to make choice of one out of three punishments for his sin in numbering the people. Ezekiel sees six men preparing to visit the city, and a seventh in their midst having another duty than theirs to fulfil in it. One angel may minister to the suffering Jesus, but He could have twelve legions of them for the asking. We are open at every pore to the action of the Lord who has made us, and He has a messenger in some occult garrison who is fitted to enter into the pore He would affect us by. Almightiness calls just the kind and number needed to execute His will. There is never one too few or one too many.
They wait at command. The seven watchers of the city appeared from out their concealment and stood beside the brazen altar. They are ready to receive and to execute the orders of Him to whose honour the sacrifices offered on the altar were to be consecrated. And when such divine forces operate, no intervention can prevent the mark of approbation which the Lord would give to His faithful friends from being impressed on them, as no shield is broad enough and strong enough to ward off the penalty which a course of rebellion ensures to those who forget God. You are secure if you have the mind that was in Christ Jesus; you are exposed to incalculable anguish if you make light of Him and go your way.
They are varied in capability. The weapons and the inkhorn are emblems of the differing influences which condemn and praise human thoughts and conduct. There are numberless producers of suffering to mankind. Onlookers cannot tell whether the trouble causing sin is to be ascribed to the sufferers or their parents; but no believer in a righteous Father can doubt that every suffering is due. It is a just measure, in view of what men need, that they may learn there is a holy God. Influences, moreover, proceed from appeals to the mind. Books and letters, sermons and conversations, have induced many souls to grieve over sin and to long for the grace of God—have brought many into shame and also into peace. Who can imagine the various features of God’s action upon men? Who can tell from whence that action will proceed? It is our comfort to know that He has sovereign authority everywhere; that no influence acts casually, but each one in due subordination to Him; that the upshot of all the summonses He sends forth will be to prove that He is holy, and just, and good; and that men have been treated with the end of saving them from sin and making them partakers of His holiness.
II. It grounds its procedure upon marked differences in human character. In God’s moral discipline precedence is given to His saving will. The man clothed in linen first made the mark of deliverance from death, and then the other six followed with the blows of their fatal weapons. The righteous are not treated as the wicked. Mercy is honoured before judgment is executed.
Safety is apportioned to those who are of one heart with God. They are seen to be loyal to His rule. They hate what He hates. They deplore the abominations which cast a slur upon the Holy One of Israel. They are seen to have sympathy for men. They do not neglect, despise, denounce the unworthy lives of their fellow-citizens: they grieve deeply because of them, knowing their own natural feebleness in the assaults of temptations; they dare not assume the airs of them that are at ease and the contempt of those that are proud. At the same time they profess no maudlin charity, and so excuse the sins which are openly committed or secretly practised in chambers of imagery. It may be that they are comparatively few—six men to punish and one only to seal with the mark of safety—but they are not ruled by the popular fashions. They are to serve God and not men. Their love to God teaches them to love their brother also, and they are conformed to the image of Him who, on a later day, wept over Jerusalem. This was the character which secured the sealing on the forehead—this the kind of character which has the sealing of the Holy Spirit of promise. For the mark is not what they see, but rather what others see on them. It is not some suggestion which they suppose is made to themselves, however vivid that suggestion may seem to be. That is no valid assurance of our being sons of God. Our assurance must come, not from an inward suggestion, but from proof, evidence, witness, which is of the nature of a work of the Spirit on the soul. What more effectual, as such a testimony, than a character which exhibits loyalty to God and sympathy for sinners? which is like that of Christ Jesus? “This is the highest sort of witness which it is possible the soul should be the subject of: if there were any such thing as a witness of the Spirit by immediate suggestion or revelation, this would be vastly more noble and excellent, and as much above that as the heaven is above the earth.”—Edwards. We who hear the Gospel may truly understand that the sealer to our safety is the Son, to whom all judgment is committed; whom the armies of heaven follow; who has all power in heaven and in earth. He knows His sheep by name. His care for them is the care of prayer and self-sacrifice. He does not go into churches and mark crowds by water of baptism. He does not pass over one house and into another so that He may mark a household on their foreheads. He acts upon individuals and on their hearts. He washes away their sins by His own blood. He renews their wills. He induces them to follow His example. And because they are quickened by His Spirit and walk in newness of life, He secures them, and they shall never perish. Christ does not guarantee His followers against all tribulation, but He does their safety from destruction by calamity. The Chaldeans might cause distress to, but could not slay, the sorrowing citizens. The enticements of sinful lusts may harass you again and again; disease may keep you bodily and spiritually low; you may be bereaved of friends whom you greatly miss; you may be injured by the conduct of those with whom you come into association; your sighs and tears may be apparently fruitless; you may see the evils still in full force around you as if you never had prayed, never had stood up for God against the workers of iniquity; yet the mighty power of God preserves you, and the time will come when you will be removed from the furnace purified like gold, and you will receive the crown of righteousness which fadeth not away. “The divine faithfulness still abides sure to the true children of the covenant.… Let such, therefore, trust in the Lord at all times, and fear not that it shall be well with the righteous.”—Fairbairn.
Death is appointed to those who continue in trespasses. The Lord has no pleasure in the death of the sinner, but rather that he turn from his wicked way. Only, if he will not turn, what remains? He is dead in sins, and a worse fate there cannot be. The guilt of it should produce unbounded fear, and be a signal to arise from the dead that Christ may give light. Let all attempts directed by a merciful God have failed to rouse, then the heavy judgment must fall on the head of every one thus guilty of hardening their hearts against the Lord. No place is so sacred as to prevent the execution of the sentence. Let it be temple or church, called holy or sacred, sin is damnation anywhere. The waters of wrath shall sweep into all hiding-places. The very place in which sin is committed may be the place for punishing sin. No leader is so great as to have immunity from the sentence. “The more aged and venerable portion of the worshippers, and those who might naturally be regarded as occupying the foremost rank among the people at large,” were slain with impartial severity. They whose Godward privileges are greatest, when they defile His worship, incur the penalty of those who are chief in wickedness. “So far is the possession of means of grace from saving men from wrath, that He abhors sin most in those from whom, by reason of their spiritual opportunities, most good was to have been expected.”—Fausset. As formerly, so now, the appeal is to be seriously listened to, “Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish.” God rules in righteousness.
MOURNING FOR OTHER MEN’S SINS (Eze_9:4)
Lamenting the sins of the times and places wherein we live is—
I. A duty incumbent on us. Our affections of grief and anger cannot be better employed than for the interest, nor better bestowed than for the service, of Him who implanted those passions in us. Our natural motions should be ordered for the God of nature, and spiritual ordered for the God of grace.
(1.) This was the practice of believers in all ages.
(2.) It was our Saviour’s practice.
(3.) Angels, as far as they are capable, have their grief for the sins of men.
II. It is an acceptable duty to God.
(1.) It is a fulfilling of the whole law consisting of love to God and love to our neighbours.
(2.) It is an imitating return for God’s affection.
(3.) This temper justifies God and His justice.
(4.) It is a sign of such a temper God hath evidenced Himself in Scripture much affected with. It is both our duty and God’s pleasure.
III. It is a means of preservation from public judgments.
(1.) Sincerity escapes best in common judgments, and this mourning for public sins is its greatest note.
(2.) This frame clears us from the guilt of common sins.
(3.) It is an endeavour to repair the honour God has lost.
(4.) Mourners in Zion are humble, and humility is preventive of judgments.
(5.) They keep covenant with God; and
(6.) fear His judgments, which is a means of preventing them.
1. We may be reproved if we make sport of sin; if we use mere invectives against it; if we look on it rather as a hurt to ourselves than as injury to God; if we do not truly mourn for our own sins.
2. We may be comforted. God doth not strike at random, and they who are stamped with Christ’s mark have His wisdom to guard them against fully, His power against weakness, the Everlasting Father against man, whose breath is in his nostrils.
The Lord seems to be upon the threshold of the temple, come down already from the cherubim, and is it not time to bewail our own sins and the common abominations that have so polluted the place of His habitation? Doth not the Holy Spirit grieve for the sins of those who play the wantons with the grace of God (Eph_4:30)? Shall we refuse mourning for that which goes to the heart of the Holy Ghost? Let us sorrow for the sins of the time and place in which we live.—Charnock.
THE MARK OF DELIVERANCE (Eze_9:4-6)
When God visits the world, or any part of it, with His desolating judgments, He usually sets a mark of deliverance on such as are suitably affected with the sins of their fellow-creatures.
I. What is implied in being suitably affected with the sins of our fellow-creatures? If our fellow-creatures infringe none of our real or supposed rights, and abstain from such gross vices as evidently disturb the peace of society, we usually feel little concern respecting their sins against God. Our nearest neighbours may be of a character remote from that of a Christian, and we show no uneasiness respecting their dangerous condition. There may indeed be a kind of pleasure when we contrast their vices and our virtues, and we are encouraged to hope for impunity in sin. Nor is this surprising. We naturally think little of our own souls or of our own sins, and he who takes no care to save himself is not likely to feel concern for the salvation of others. Evidently a great change must take place in our views and feelings if the conduct of the persons mentioned in our text is suitable for us. Though they lived in an evil day, when the judgments of God were falling heavily upon their nation, they appear to have felt more poignant grief for prevailing sins than for the desolating judgments which they occasioned. To be rightly affected—
First, We must fear sin more than the punishment of sin; be more grieved to see God dishonoured, His Son neglected, and immortal souls ruined, than to see our commerce interrupted, our fellow-citizens divided, and our country invaded.
Second, We must use diligent exertions, by every means in our power, to reform the sinners. There are many who will readily allow that sins prevail among us, and confess it is a very melancholy thing, but still they use no means to counteract or repress the evils which they profess to lament. As it is not sufficient to confess our own sins without renouncing them, so it is not sufficient to mourn for the sins of others without attempting their reformation. This attempt must be made—
1. By example. As the force of example is inconceivably great, every person is sacredly bound, in times of prevailing degeneracy, to act an open, firm, and decided part in favour of virtue and religion—avoiding the very appearance of those evils which are prevalent around him.
2. By exertions to suppress vice and impiety. When the interests of virtue and religion are fenced round by wholesome laws, every individual is bound to see them faithfully executed. By conniving at the sins of others we make them our own. “To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” A righteous God will not hold us guiltless if we do not prevent evil which we could have prevented. “If thou forbear to deliver,” &c. Those who neither fear God nor regard man must be taught by their apprehensions not to stalk their vicious propensities in open day. The task may be disagreeable. Many will mourn in their closets, but use no exertion in public, pretending that others may more properly engage in it. We are willing that God should take care of our honour and interests, but too often we suffer His laws to be violated with impunity. We can thus have no claim to the character mentioned in our text. God will set no mark on us unless we appear openly and decidedly against the prevalence of sin.
3. By prayers. A regard to order or some similar principle induces to the suppression of vice; but this is presumptuous and tempting God if we neglect prayer for divine influence.
Third, We must be deeply affected with our own sins. We shall acknowledge that our sins have assisted in forming the mass of national guilt. If not guilty of the same vice as others, it is because of the restraints of grace, and we shall temper all exertions with pity for the offender while abhorring the offence. He who is most affected by the sins of others will mourn most sincerely for his own. Thus have all the good men mentioned in the Bible done.
II. That on such as are thus affected God will set a mark of deliverance when those around them are destroyed by His desolating judgments. This is inferred—
1. From the justice of God. They do not share in the national sins; they mourn for and oppose them, and justice requires a mark of separation for them. True, such persons have violated the law of God as individuals; but they have not done the wickedness which is chargeable on the community, and they are spared.
2. From God’s holiness. Such characters love God. It is their love to God which causes them to mourn over and oppose iniquity. His cause, His honour, they consider as their own. While God loves holiness He cannot but love them.
3. From His faithfulness. None more highly honour Him than those who appear openly on His side in opposition to sin, and He will honour them by placing some mark of distinction on them. Like their Father and their Redeemer they are grieved with the sins of man, and a strong refuge is provided by Him.
4. From the facts of Scripture. Noah, Job, Elijah, Jeremiah, &c. Will it be said that facts do not always justify the statement of deliverance? We allow that they do not. But may the professed mourners not partake in common sin, or be entangled in policy so as not to bear a testimony against the prevailing evil? And if many righteous have been put to death, the mark of God was on them. Stephen, Paul, and Silas, martyrs. However this may be, the Son of God, clothed in the linen garments of His priestly office, has sprinkled them with His blood, sealed them with the Holy Spirit, written their names in the book of life, and they will have His Father’s name written in their forehead.
If God should send a messenger to set a mark on all who are suitably affected, would it appear on thee?—Payson (abridged).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Slaughter of the Idolaters in Jerusalem
The Slaughter of the Idolaters in Jerusalem
The voice which has been speaking to Ezekiel now summons six supernatural beings armed with weapons of slaughter. They are attended by a seventh robed like a priest and equipped as a scribe. They come from the north, and take their stand by the brasen altar in the inner court. The 'glory of God' leaves the living chariot and stands at the threshold of the main Temple building. The man who acts as scribe is instructed to go through the city and set a mark on the foreheads of all those who mourn for the prevailing idolatries. The other six are instructed to follow him, to slay all those who are not thus marked, without respect to sex or age, and to begin at the Temple itself. The command is obeyed, and the sun-worshippers in the Temple are the first victims. Ezekiel, appalled at the fate of the citizens, falls on his face to plead that the whole nation may not be destroyed, but he is told that punishment must be sternly executed on those who have so fully deserved it. The scribe-angel reports that his work is done, and we are left to imagine that the work of slaughter was carried out too. This chapter teaches that while God visits sin with doom, He is perfectly just, and will not suffer the righteous to perish with the wicked.
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2. The higher (RV 'upper') gate.. toward the north] the northern gate of the inner court, as in Eze_8:3, Eze_8:5, Eze_8:7. The brasen altar] made by Solomon (2Ch_4:1), and probably placed in the middle of the inner court. Ahaz made a new altar of stone, and removed Solomon's brasen altar to the N. side of it (2Ki_16:14).
3. The cherub] mentioned without explanation. Throughout this vision 'cherub' is used for 'living creature' for the reason given in Eze_10:20. The singular number is used here, as in Eze_1:20-21, for the group of four. The house] the chief Temple building, which was on the W. side of the inner court, with its front facing E.
4. A mark] lit. 'a Tav,' the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Its early form was like a cross, thus89504e470d0a1a0a0000000d49484452000000210000001e08020000002daae040000000017352474200aece1ce90000000970485973000012740000127401de661f78000002d349444154484bb596594b6a511cc5d31c9a872b8404510e180515e683e04b5f243f8b1fc7079f1d1e44f225f0215041a581b2c9281cca31d3f2feb85bce3d74b96700db0fa29ebdd7daffb5fec3318c46a3290d6b381cb6dbed5aadf6f4f494cfe7cd66b3d3e9f4f97c2b2b2baaa78daa3bc40693c904dcc2c20264cd66f3f1f1f1f9f9b9dbed6a39ae954360819bc964d2e9f4c9c949a150787b7b9b3c47b1588cc7e38944029acbcbcb1f8903a1245c14fbf8f8987c1cb832373727709796962c16cbe439aad56ab95c16b856ab15ca1fe1b8bdbd15b80434333333790efc904021989f9f9f3cc737718c464da9af699374593928df676767b5c4f1d7b48787074a6c3018acaeae52cfa40d8a4f4f4f4b28954a855e22fdacd7ebd7d7d7b413fe41c39797974ea7f3f5f54542936fc8b8bcbc2c10c61cec88c562c964924604c1dada9acbe5dadede662bc54ce700e8f5f5f5e2e242e2b8bbbb4ba5521003cde5e0ebf7fb743ff890747373d3ebf5eeeeee0235e668341a67676791484440f0606767e7f0f09068385f2a95386c3018a4c465cfcdcd4d341a3d3d3de52cff4bf926100e0e0e08e8d79f35c56116cd27180cfe2bae427642a96cc6f1f13181d217c69ed3530381c0d1d11195253ff9fefefe3f20e5a1b0b7b787da369b8dbc3088adcc0604a5e55d5d5d21e8e7e72791a22f1e629ad433cecfcfb3d9ac9085db783c1e14477a5cfc96d6a8cd23e1c7582ba198ea0a87c3c42a2273bbdda1502897cba99ed2571f1b1b1b64b6e0b0dbed24c5fefebeb22ba4833e8efbfb7bb248804246d6514f0a1c3cd5cd21efbbd4177ee28402072943d9ea8b030ea90eb0a1d7eb29c7c11e524b1f877cf0a9d607f111e5d6d6963e0ef9e0d3f2d28498ba39340ebe6f0ee98b433ea3945356fe5407074d50def85aad16f668514c07070383d6225d707171117bb438af83832ecd3b2ecd8e0ae7133399425ac6edb8276a1497575016a2391c0e2684dfef5f5f5f573dfb1b6082c11c49158d070000000049454e44ae426082. Rev_7:3 is based on this passage.
6. The ancient men] the sun-worshippers in Eze_8:16. The thought of this v. is taken up in 1Pe_4:17.
7. Defile] The presence of corpses would pollute the sanctuary.
8. One of the few instances in which Ezekiel's love of his nation struggles with his approval of God's judgments upon them. He fears that all Israel may share Jerusalem's fate.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv3–4 was gone
was gone
It is noteworthy that to Ezekiel the priest was given the vision of the glory of the Lord
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(1) departing from the Cherubim to the threshold of the temple Eze 9:3; Eze 10:4.
(2) from the threshold Eze 10:18.
(3) from temple and city to the mountain on the East of Jerusalem (Olivet, Eze 11:23) and
(4) returning to the millennial temple to abide. Eze 43:2-5.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Eze 9:1-11. The six men mentioned are angels, into…
Eze 9:1-11. The six men mentioned are angels, into whose hands the city is given. Angels are used in judgments past and future. (See Mat 13:41; Mat 16:27; 2Th 1:7-12.) Angels are likewise prominently mentioned in the book of Revelation. There is a striking correspondency between this chapter and Rev 7:1-3. Those who sigh and weep constitute the remnant which have no sympathy with the abominations. They are marked for preservation. Thus a remnant was then kept. Well may we remember that now, in the professing church, in the midst of the apostasy, there is also a faithful remnant who sigh and cry and who have the special promise of the Lord Rev 3:10.
The word “mark” in the Hebrew is “Tav,” the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Its literal meaning is “cross.” This letter “T” was a cross in the older Hebrew script as well as in the Phoenician and Samaritan. The Egyptians also used a cross in their language, with them it was a sign of life. Ancient Jewish tradition gives the information that the blood sprinkled in Egypt on the doorpost Exo 12:23 was in the form of a cross. All this is interesting. To this we may add that in Gen 4:15, the mark set upon Cain, an entirely different word is used.
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Then the command was literally executed.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Lord’s Judgment upon the Guilty.
The Lord’s Judgment upon the Guilty.
The wickedness of the people described in chapter 8 is now followed by its proper punishment at the hand of the Lord in full agreement with the certain fulfillment of all His threats upon the wicked.
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v. 1. He cried also in mine ears, with a loud voice, the Lord thus emphasizing the importance of His command, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city, the heavenly watchmen, the angels through whom the Lord intended to carry out His punishment, to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand, in order to punish the wicked.
v. 2. And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, the angels assuming the shape of men and coming down from the upper entrance of the temple, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter-weapon in his hand, literally, "his weapon for shattering", for in this manner the judgment was to be executed; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side, literally, "on his loins. " that is, suspended from his girdle; and they went in and stood beside the brazen altar, the altar of burnt offerings, their attitude showing a deferential waiting for the commands of the Lord. The white linen color of the writer in their midst was symbolical of the divine holiness and glory
v. 3. And the glory of the God of Israel, which is evidently thought of as the cloud in which he revealed Himself in His Temple, was gone up from the cherub whereupon He was, to the threshold of the house, to the entrance of the Holy Place, whence the Lord intended to issue His commands concerning the destruction of the apostate people. And He called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side,
v. 4. and the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, the repetition of this expression indicating the thoroughness with which the work was to be done, every part of the city was to be reached, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. This mark, which come of the old Church fathers like to identify with that of the cross, since it. was the Hebrew letter tan, was a seal by which the wearers were to be securely guarded against special calamities about to be sent. They were the ones who were as yet deeply concerned about the increasing godlessness and were therefore to receive this consideration at the hand of the destroyer,
v. 5. And to the others He said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city and smite, in a terrible judgment of extermination; let not your eye spare, as it might when seeing pitiful sights or hands raised in supplication, neither have ye pity;
v. 6. slay utterly, to a complete destruction, with the purpose of working an utter extermination, old and young, both maids and little children, the very infants, and women, neither age nor sex being spared; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark, who was safeguarded by the Lord’s seal upon his forehead, where it could most easily he seen; and begin at My Sanctuary, for it was there that the greatest abominations had been committed, and that by the priests themselves. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house, who were guilty of sinful sacrifices.
v. 7. And He said unto them, Defile the house, namely, by this slaughter, and fill the courts with the slain; go ye forth. And they went forth, after having performed their gruesome task in the entire Temple area, and slew in the city.
v. 8. And it came to pass while they were slaying them and I was left, he being the first one to be spared, and possibly the only one, in the Temple area, that I fell upon my face, in the attitude of most urgent supplication, and cried and said, Ah, Lord God, wilt Thou destroy all the residue of Israel in Thy pouring out of Thy fury upon Jerusalem? He showed the same feeling of compassion as was exhibited by Abraham in making intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah.
v. 9. Then said He unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah, of the entire covenant people, is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, on account of the murders and similar crimes which had been committed, and the city full of perverseness, not only of lawless conduct, but also of wresting of judgment; for they say, Cf.Ezekiel 8:12, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not, thus denying both His interest in His people and His providence. To this the Lord gives His answer.
v. 10. And as for Me also, Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head, fully repaying them for all their wickedness. The time for mercy was past, and nothing but punishment remained.
v. 11. And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, the more easily to keep record of all his works, reported the matter, announcing the accomplished fact, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me. Thus the first act of the judgment was accomplished. In the midst of this general punishment it is a consoling thought that God renders his people secure against the common ruin, though all things else on earth are confounded.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 9 General Information:
General Information:
Ezekiel continues to tell about the vision God gave him. It started in Ezekiel 8:1.
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he cried in my hearing
"I heard him call out"
he cried
the "figure like a man" (Ezekiel 8:2) cried
weapon of destruction
weapon for destroying people or things
weapon of slaughter
weapon for killing many people
behold
"look" or "listen" or "pay attention to what I am about to tell you"
the upper gate that faces north
"the upper northern gate" or "the north gate of the inner court"
linen
a strong, smooth cloth made from a plant. It is worn by many people in places that are hot. AT: "smooth cloth" (See: Translate Unknowns)
scribe's equipment
tools that scribes write with
bronze
A dark gold-colored metal. It is made from mostly copper with tin added for strength. (See: Translate Unknowns)
translationWords
gate
scribe
bronze
altar
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11 9:1-2 The prophet did not have to wait long…
9:1-2 The prophet did not have to wait long for judgment to come. The Lord summoned his angelic warriors to punish the city, and seven men appeared in response. Six men each carried a deadly weapon, while the seventh was dressed in linen and carried a writer’s case. They stood ready for action in the Temple courtyard, next to the bronze altar where sacrifices were normally offered.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.