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?”
Parallel Translations
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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?”
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And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?
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And it came to pass, while they were smiting, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said: 'Ah Lord GOD! wilt Thou destroy all the residue of Israel in Thy pouring out of Thy fury upon Jerusalem?'
Cross-references (15)
Passages linked to Ezekiel 9:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ezekiel 11:13 When I prophesied, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”
- Numbers 14:5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
- Numbers 16:45 “Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment!” They fell on their faces.
- Joshua 7:6 Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before Yahweh’s ark until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads.
- 1 Chronicles 21:16 David lifted up his eyes, and saw Yahweh’s angel standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
- Ezekiel 4:14 Then I said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals. No abominable meat has come into my mouth!”
- Genesis 18:23 Abraham came near, and said, “Will you consume the righteous with the wicked?
- Numbers 16:4 When Moses heard it, he fell on his face.
- Numbers 16:21-22 “Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment!” They fell on their faces, and said, “God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?”
- Deuteronomy 9:18 I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger.
- Ezra 9:5 At the evening offering I arose up from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn; and I fell on my knees, and spread out my hands to Yahweh my God;
- Jeremiah 4:10 Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace;’ whereas the sword reaches to the heart.”
- Jeremiah 14:13 Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, the prophets tell them, ‘You will not see the sword, neither will you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.’ ”
- Jeremiah 14:19 Have you utterly rejected Judah? Has your soul loathed Zion? Why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!
- Amos 7:2-6 When they finished eating the grass of the land, then I said, “Lord Yahweh, forgive, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.” Yahweh relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” says Yahweh. Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me and behold, the Lord Yahweh called for judgment by fire; and it dried up the great deep, and would have devoured the land. Then I said, “Lord Yahweh, stop, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.” Yahweh relented concerning this. “This also shall not be,” says the Lord Yahweh.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (17 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The Prophet does not so carefully preserve the historical…
The Prophet does not so carefully preserve the historical order in the context of the words. For he says, the Chaldeans had returned He afterwards adds, while they were striking the city that he fell upon his face. But we know this to be sufficiently common among the Hebrews, to relate first what is done afterwards. Although the Prophet seems to have fallen upon his face a little after their return, i.e., as soon as he perceived the city to have been nearly destroyed; yet he says, while they were smiting, he himself was left. They think the word compounded of the past and future tense, because there can be no grammatical reason that the word should be one and single. Indeed the word seems compounded of the first and third persons, as if he would say that he was left alone when all the rest were perishing. Yet there is no ambiguity in the sense; for it signifies that the Chaldeans had so attacked them everywhere, that they left none remaining. Since, therefore, they raged so savagely against the whole multitude, the Prophet seemed to himself to remain alone, as if God had snatched him from the horrible burning, by which he wished the whole people to be consumed and perish. Now if any one should object, that they were not all slain, the answer is, that a slaughter took place which almost destroyed the name of the people; then the survivors were like the dead, because exile was worse to them than death itself. Lastly, we must remark that the prophecy was extended to the last penalty, which at length awaits the ungodly, although God connives at them for a time, or merely chastises them moderately.
In fine, the slaughter of the city was shown to the Prophet as if all the citizens had utterly perished. And so God wished to show how terrible a destruction pressed upon the people, and yet no one feared it. Now as the Prophet fell upon his face, it was a testimony of the human affection, by which he instructed the people although unworthy. Hence he fell upon his face as a mediator, for we know that when the faithful ask pardon of God, they fall upon their face. They are said also to pour forth their prayers for the sake of humility, because they are unworthy to direct their prayers and words upwards. (Psalm 102:1.) Therefore Ezekiel shows that he interceded for the safety of the people. And truly God was unwilling that his servants, under pretense of zeal, should cast off all sense of humanity, so that the slaughter of the people should be their play and joke. We have seen how anxiously Jeremiah prayed for the people, so that he was at length entirely overwhelmed with grief; for he wished, as we see in the ninth chapter, that his eyes flowed down as fountains. (Jeremiah 9:1.) Hence the Prophets, although they were God’s heralds to promulgate his wrath, yet had not altogether put off all care and anxiety; for when they seemed to be hostile to the people they pitied them. And to this end Ezekiel fell on his face before God And truly that was a grievous trial, which he did not disguise; for he complains that a populous city was destroyed, and women and boys slain promiscuously with men. But he lays before God his own covenant, as if he said, even if the whole world should perish, yet it was impossible for God to lose his own Church, because he had promised, that as long as the sun and moon shone in heaven, there should be a seed of the pious in the world. “They shall be my faithful witnesses in heaven,” said he. (Psalm 89:37, 38.) The sun and moon are remaining in their place: therefore God seemed to have broken his covenant when he destroyed the whole people. This is the reason why the Prophet lies on his face, as if astonished, and exclaims with vehemence, Alas! O Lord God, wilt thou destroy the remnant of Israel by pouring forth thine anger? that is, whilst thou so purest forth thine anger against Jerusalem — for that city remained as a testimony of God’s covenant; for as yet some safety could be hoped for; but although after it was cut off, the faithful wrestled with that temptation, yet the contest was hard and fatiguing; for no one thought that any memorial of God’s covenant could flourish when that city was extinct. For he had there chosen his seat and dwelling, and wished to be worshipped in that one place. Since, therefore, the Prophet saw that city destroyed, he broke forth into a cry, what then will become of it! For when thou hast poured forth thine anger against Jerusalem, nothing will remain left in the city. Hence also it will readily be understood, that God’s covenant was almost obliterated, and had lost all its effect. Now 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 This declareth that the servants of God have a…
This declareth that the servants of God have a compassion, when they see his judgments executed.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Eze 9:8 And it came to pass, while they…
Eze 9:8 And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?
Ver. 8. And I was left.] And, as I was apt to think, alone. {Rom 11:3}
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I fell upon my face and cried.] This is the guise of the gracious in evil times, as may be seen in Moses, Jeremiah, Paul, Athanasius, Ambrose, &c.
Ah, Lord God!] Adonai Jehovi (not Jehova, as elsewhere usually), so the saints have sometimes prayed, tanquam singultientes in patheticis precibus, {a} or rather sighed out their most earnest suits to God. {as Gen 15:2-8 Deu 3:24; Deu 9:26}
Wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel?] Brevis quidem est haec querimonia prophetae: at multa complectitur. {b} This is a brief but a complexive complaint, and hath much in it.
{a} Polan.
{b} Lavat.
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 And it came to pass: this is a most…
And it came to pass: this is a most usual transition, and Scripture phrase.
While; there was some space of time taken up in the execution.
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They were slaying; the six slaughtermen; not bodily and actually, but visionally, and in prophetic representation.
Slaying them; those about the sanctuary, and in the city.
I was left; either survived the slaughter, or left alone, now both the sealer and the slayers were gone; or alone sealed of all the priests, the rest being exposed to destruction.
I fell on my face, in most humble and earnest manner addressing to God, as one that would entreat mercy for a ruined state; and
cried, importunately prayed; and the prayer follows.
Ah! an expression of the greatest compounded affection of pity, desire, and zeal for the afflicted; and what follows is a complex of arguments for pity and sparing mercy; from God himself, from his peculiar hand in this, from his people, the remnant of them, and from the sad and mournful state Jerusalem was already in. Must all Israel drink thus of the cup of thine indignation?
The residue of Israel; so called, because many were already in captivity with Jeconiah, and had been so about six or seven years; or else in respect to the electing love of God, who ever reserved a remnant to himself.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And it came to pass, while they were slaying…
And it came to pass, while they were slaying them,.... That were in the city:
and I was left; in the temple; and the only one that was left there, the rest were slain; for there were none marked in the temple, only in the city, Eze 9:4;
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that I fell upon my face; as a supplicant, with great humility:
and cried, and said; being greatly distressed with this awful providence:
ah, Lord God! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel; the ten tribes had been carried captive before; there only remained the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and these were now threatened with an utter destruction:
in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem? shown in the destruction of men, both in the city and temple, by famine, pestilence, and sword.
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 Was left - Left alone, now both the sealer,…
Was left - Left alone, now both the sealer, and the slayers were gone.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 8. Wilt thou destroy all the residue of…
Verse 8. Wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel, On thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?] These destroyers had slain the seventy elders, the twenty-five adorers of the sun, and the women that mourned for Tammuz; and on seeing this slaughter the prophet fell on his face, and began to make intercession.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Eze 9:8. And while they were slaying, and I…
Eze 9:8. And while they were slaying, and I was left — Having, as it is to be supposed, the mark of preservation set upon his forehead by the protecting angel. He seems to speak as if he thought he alone was preserved amidst the common destruction, although, certainly, all those who had a mark set upon them were preserved as well as he. I fell upon my face and cried, &c. — I appeared to myself in my vision to do so, namely, to fall down in a posture of supplication, to deprecate God’s anger, (see Num 12:5; and Num 16:4; Num 16:22; Num 16:45,) and to beseech him not to make an utter end of those small remains that were left of the Jewish nation, Jerusalem being almost the only place which was not in the enemy’s power.
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 Left - The prophet was left alone, all who…
Left - The prophet was left alone, all who had been around him were slain.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain I was left--literally "there was left I." So universal…
I was left--literally "there was left I." So universal seemed the slaughter that Ezekiel thought himself the only one left [CALVIN]. He was the only one left of the priests "in the sanctuary."
fell upon my face--to intercede for his countrymen (so Num 16:22).
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all the residue--a plea drawn from God's covenant promise to save the elect remnant.
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 8. Ah Lord God — The executioners have passed…
8. Ah Lord God — The executioners have passed on, and the prophet is left in the inner court alone with the dead. It seems to him that the last hope of Israel is gone, and that even the last residue of the nation would now be destroyed. Like Elijah, he believes he alone of all God’s people is to be left (1Ki_19:10). Like Moses, he cries out in agony pleading for his speechless, unrepentant countrymen (Num_11:2; Num_14:19; compare Rom_9:1-3).
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 Eze_9:8-10. Intercession of the Prophet
Eze_9:8-10. Intercession of the Prophet
and I was left] The executioners passed out of the inner court, leaving only dead behind them, and the prophet was left alone (Isa_49:21. The anomalous form is to be read impf.). The terrible outbreak of the Divine wrath seemed to forebode the extinction of all the remnant of Israel, and the prophet fell on his face, appealing to the Lord on their behalf. The “residue” suggests the many calamities that had already befallen the people, wearing them down to only a few men (Isa_41:14, comp. the prophet’s own figure of the half-burnt brand, ch. 15), and the threat of a fire going out upon all the house of Israel seemed about to be realized (ch. Eze_5:4). The prophet passes from one state of feeling to another. Sometimes he is in sympathy with the divine resentment, and is himself full of fury against the sinful people (ch. Eze_3:14), and of a scorn that rejoices at their coming chastisements (ch. Eze_6:11), but when the judgments of God are abroad before his eyes he is appalled at their severity, and his pity for men overcomes his religious zeal (ch. Eze_11:13).
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 (8) I was left.—The words imply left alone. The…
(8) I was left.—The words imply left alone. The prophet had just before seen the courts of the sanctuary thronged with idolaters in the full glory of their heaven-defying sin. Now it is a city of the dead, and he is left standing alone in the midst of the dead. He falls upon his face in consternation, and pleads that “the residue of Israel” may not be utterly destroyed. The sternness of the Divine answer leaves no room for hope of any mitigation of the judgment. No mention is made here of those who were to be saved; they were so few among the mass as to have no effect upon the general impression of the vision. Yet they are not forgotten; and to show that they are not, the man in linen is represented in the next verse (11) as reporting that he had executed the command given him.
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 I fell upon my face, etc. The ministers of…
I fell upon my face, etc. The ministers of vengeance and the prophet were left in the courts of the temple alone. His human, national sympathies led him, as they led Moses (Num_11:2 Num_14:19) and St. Paul (Rom_9:1-3) to undertake the work of intercession. With the words which had been the keynote of Isaiah"s prophecies, probably present to his thoughts, (Isa_37:32, et al. ) he asks whether Jehovah will indeed destroy all that remnant of Israel (comp. Eze_11:13) who might be as the germ of hope for the future.
Vers. 8-11. Human intercession.
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In every age good men have felt an internal constraint to intercede for the guilty. Love to God always produces love to men.
I INTERCESSION FOR THE GUILTY IS PRAISEWORTHY. Ezekiel felt that, though surrounded by the slain, his own life had been spared. A proper sense of God"s compassion to us awakens similar compassion for others. It is a noble sentiment, and God does not discourage it. It sheds a blessing in the breast of him who cherishes it. Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Paul, are notable examples of earnest intercessors for their fellows.
II INTERCESSION FOR THE GUILTY SHOULD BE MADE IN GREAT HUMILITY. Ezekiel "fell upon his face." This was most seemly. For, on the surface of our appeal, it would seem as if an imperfect man were more possessed with pity than is God. Yet this can never be. The tiny rill can never rise higher than the fount. One beam of light can never outvie the sun. Nor can we suppose that any element of extenuation has been overlooked by the comprehensive mind of God. In fact. reflection at such time is quiescent; the intercessor yields for the moment to the impulse of feeling. Nevertheless, intercession is proper and becoming; for who can tell but that God has predetermined to grant delay or reprieve on condition that intercession be made? We must stoop if we would conquer.
III INTERCESSION FOR THE GUILTY MUST ALWAYS BE SUBORDINATE TO THE INTERESTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. The prophet evidently had due regard to the honour of God, while he sought a reprieve for men. To blot out the very nation which he had aforetime so protected and blessed, would (in the eyes of the heathen) have been a dishonour. But the approval of the good among angels and among men was more precious, deserved more consideration, than the opinion of idolatrous nations. The well being of the universe is intertwined with the maintenance of righteousness; and, at all costs, righteousness must be upheld. Already God had provided fur the safety of the faithful few; but to the eye of the prophet the few seemed as nothing. Yet, if we had larger faith, we should have less anxiety for the Church"s weal.
IV INTERCESSION, THOUGH APPARENTLY UNSUCCESSFUL, BRINGS SOME ADVANTAGE. Though Abraham, in pleading for Sodom, was apparently unsuccessful, he was not really so. No prayer is fruitless. God was not displeased with Ezekiel"s intercession. He condescended to reason with him. He showed him yet more clearly the magnitude of Israel"s sin. He showed him how that, if he did not destroy evil men, the evil men in Israel would slay the pious: "The land is full of blood." He impressed on the prophet"s heart yet more deeply the sanctity of law and equity. The severest punishment was simply "recompense their proper wages. By such intercession the prophet is the better equipped for his future work. D.
Vers. 8-10. The intercession of the prophet and the answer of the Lord.
"And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left," etc. This intercession helps us to understand why the Lord showed to Ezekiel the secret abominations of the people, and called upon him to consider. (Eze_8:7-12) In dealing with that vision, we suggested that he was called upon to consider it in order that he might be qualified to estimate correctly the righteousness of God"s treatment of the wicked. To know the extent and enormity of their sins was necessary to enable him to acquiesce in the Divine judgments with which they were about to be visited. That necessity is made manifest by the fact that, now that the prophet beholds the execution of those judgments, he cries to God to abate their severity, and has to be reminded again of the many and heinous sins of the house of Israel and Judah. Consider
I THE AFFECTING INTERCESSION OF THE PROPHET. (Ver. 8.) In vision the work of slaughter in the temple is finished, and the angels of judgment have gone forth to slay in the city, leaving Ezekiel alone "in the court of the priests of the temple;" then he "fell upon his face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?" This intercession:
1. Arose from deep feeling. "I fell upon my face, and cried." Falling upon the face in prayer is indicative of great humiliation and grief, as may be seen from several examples. (cf. Num_14:5 Num_16:4, 22 20:6; Jos_7:6) And our Lord, when his "soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death .... fell on his face, and prayed." So the soul of Ezekiel was intensely stirred as he beheld in vision the terrible slaughter of the sinful people. It may be a prophet"s stern task to denounce the awful judgments of the Most High; but he will be deeply moved because of those judgments. The miseries of even the most guilty sinners will affect his heart with grief; and this feeling will lead him to intercede with God on behalf of the sinful and suffering people. Deep feeling prompts to earnest prayer.
2. Presented an earnest appeal. "Ah, Lord God! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?" But had it not been shown unto Ezekiel that certain persons were to have a mark set upon their foreheads, and were to be spared in the general slaughter? "That his question is not hindered by his having heard of the pious being spared shows either his fear in this respect, that in Jerusalem there will he nothing at all to be spared, or that the sparing in comparison with the destruction does not at all come into consideration" (Schroder). Almost every word in this appeal is weighty. "Ah, Lord Jehovah! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel?" Thou who didst enter into covenant with them, and didst say, "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me;" wilt thou fail in thy promises, and break thy covenant? "Wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel?" Thou didst say, "If his children forsake my Law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes; nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail;" and wilt thou now destroy them? Will it not suffice for thee to visit them with the sharp rod and with the searching stripes of thy chastisement? "Wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel?" They have slain all that were in and about the temple, and have gone forth to stay in the city, and thou didst say unto me, "Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword"; (Eze_6:8) and wilt thou make an utter end, leaving no remnant, but slaying all? Thus earnestly and powerfully does the prophet appeal to the Lord on behalf of he doomed people.
II THE CONDESCENDING ANSWER OF GOD TO THE PROPHET. (Vers. 9, 10.) The Lord graciously responds to the intercession of his servant; and in this response we have:
1. A declaration of the great wickedness of the people. (Ver. 9.)
(1) Here are some forms of their wickedness. "The land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness;" or, as in the margin, "wresting of judgment." Cruelty and injustice abounded. They had "filled the land with violence". (Eze_8:17)
(2) Here is the root of their wickedness: "They say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not." (We have noticed these words Eze_8:12) They were practically atheistic, denying the Divine interest in and observation of human life. "The source of all transgression," says Michaelis, "is the denial of the providence of God.
1. A declaration of his determination to fully execute his judgments. "And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity." (See our notes on these words in Eze_7:4)
2. A declaration of the retributory character of his judgments. "I will recompense their way upon their head." This relation of judgment and sin is more fully stated in Eze_7:3, Eze_7:4. (see our notes there) The Prophet Obadiah also declares this truth: "As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.
CONCLUSION. The answer of the Lord to the intercession of the prophet sheds encouraging light upon his treatment of our wavers to him. We learn that we have liberty of approach to him. We may talk with him of his judgments; and he will not resent it as if it were presumptuous on our part. We may rather rest assured that he will graciously respond to our appeals. He will reply even to our "wild and wandering cries" to him. But he will not always grant our requests either for ourselves or for others. He loves us too much and too wisely so to do. 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 I was left.
Eze_9:8
I was left.
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Spared
I. A pathetic reflection, which seems to invite us to take a solemn retrospect - I was left. You remember, many of you, times of sickness. You walked among the graves, but you did not stumble into them. Fierce and fatal maladies lurked in your path, but they were not allowed to devour you. The bullets of death whistled by your ears, and yet you stood alive, for his bullet had no billet for your heart. I was left--preserved, great God, when many others perished; sustained, Standing on the rock of life when the waves of death dashed about me, the spray fell heavy upon me, and my body was saturated with disease and pain, yet am I still alive--permitted still to mingle with the busy tribes of men. Now, then, what does such a retrospect as this suggest? Ought we not each one of us to ask the question, What was I spared for? Why was I left? Was it that mercy might yet visit you--that grace might yet renew your soul? Have you found it so? Say, sinner, in looking back upon the times when you have been left, were you spared in order that you might be saved with a great salvation? Let us change the retrospect and look upon the sparing mercy of God in another light. I was left. You were born of ungodly parents; the earliest words you can recollect were base and blasphemous, too bad to repeat. You grew up, you and your brothers and your sisters, side by side; you filled the home with sin, you went on together in your youthful crimes, and encouraged each other in evil habits. You recollect how one and another of your old comrades died; you followed them to their graves, and your merriment was checked a little while, but it soon broke out again. Then a sister died, steeped to the mouth in infidelity; after that a brother was taken,--he had no hope in his death, all was darkness and despair before him. And so, sinner, thou hast outlived all thy comrades. And now thou art left, sinner; and, blessed be God, it may be you can say, Yes, and I am not only left, but I am here in the house of prayer; and if I know my own heart, there is nothing I should hate so much as to live my old life over again. As you have served the devil through thick and thin, until you came to serve him alone, and your company had all departed, so by Divine grace may you be pledged to Christ--to follow Him, though all the world should despise Him, and to hold on to the end, until, g every professor should be an apostate, it might yet be said of you at the last, He was left; he stood alone in sin while his comrades died; and then he stood alone in Christ when his companions deserted him. Thus of you it should ever be said, He was left. This suggests also one more form of the same retrospect. What a special providence has watched over some of us, and guarded our feeble frames! Why are you spared? are you an unconverted man? an unconverted woman? To what end are you spared? Is it that you may at the eleventh hour be saved? God grant it may be so. But art thou a Christian? Then it is not hard for thee to answer the question, Why art thou spared? Tell it out, tell it out, thou aged man; tell the story of that preserving grace which has kept thee up till now. Tell to thy children and to thy childrens children what a God He is whom thou hast trusted.
II. A prospect. And I was left. You and I shall soon pass out of this world into another. This life is, as it were, but the ferry boat; we are being carried across, and we shall soon come to the true shore, the real terra firma, for here there is nothing that is substantial. Great God, shall I stand there wrapped in His righteousness alone, the righteousness of Him who sits my Judge erect upon the judgment seat?--shall I, when the wicked shall cry, Rocks hide us, mountains on us fall, shall this eye look up, shall this face dare to turn itself to the face of Him that sits upon the throne? Shall I stand calm and unmoved amidst universal terror and dismay? shall I be numbered with the goodly company who, clothed with the white linen which is the righteousness of the saints, shall await the shock, shall see the wicked hurled to destruction, and feel and know themselves secure? Shall it be so, or shall I be bound up in a bundle to burn, and swept away forever by the breath of Gods nostrils, like the chaff driven before the wind? It must be one or the other; which shall it be?
III. A terrible contrast. There will be some who will not be left in the sense we have been speaking of, and yet who will be left after another and more dreadful manner. They will be left by mercy, forsaken by hope, given up by friends, and become a prey to the implacable fury, to the sudden, infinite, and unmitigated severity and justice of an angry God. But they will not be left or exempted from judgment, for the sword shall find them out, the vials of Jehovah shall reach even to their heart. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Wilt Thou destroy all the residue of Israel?--
Zeal and pity
The prophet passes from one state of feeling to another. Sometimes he is in sympathy with the Divine resentment, and is himself full of fury against the sinful people (Eze_3:14), and of scorn that rejoices at their coming chastisements (Eze_6:11), but when the judgments of God are abroad before his eyes he is appalled at their severity, and his pity for men overcomes his religious zeal. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
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 2. The Prophet Interceding in Vain (Eze_9:8-11)
2. The Prophet Interceding in Vain (Eze_9:8-11)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Eze_9:8. Ezekiel recovers from a passing surprise while the slaughter in the city was proceeding, and then realises his solitariness. “And remained I,” the frequenters of the Temple all dead, the only one spared alive there, his perturbed mind was found in a temporary oblivion of what he had heard in reference to such as were to be marked, and then loomed before him the obliteration even of the promised remnant. In intense sympathy for the people; in fear and sorrow, “I fell upon my face;” with his mouth in the dust he burst forth into an appeal for forbearance—speaking not in name of the exiles, but in name of the inhabitants of Judea, “and said, Ah! Lord God, destroyest Thou all the remnant of Israel,” as would be done, “in the pouring out Thy fury upon Jerusalem?” The captive sin Assyria and Babylon are undergoing their punishment: all that is left of Israel as a nation is here, and therefore Ezekiel’s cry is to the Lord God for the latter.
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Eze_9:9. The answer to his appeal is decisive. “And He said unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is great exceedingly.” The criminality was not all of the same character: in the landward parts, crimes of “blood-shedding” were most common; in the city, crimes of “perverting rights.” Religious declension and rebelliousness are not mentioned here, but moral corruption is, as constituting the evil which is to be severely punished. And the terms in which the people form an excuse for their sins correspond with the predominance of the moral element: “for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not.” The difference between this and that in chap. Eze_8:12, where the religious aspect was prominent, lies here: the latter verse puts “seeth us not” first—religion is primarily a matter between God and man. The verse now before us puts “hath forsaken the earth” first—as if the Lord had gone away from all regard of the conduct of men to men. They imagine they have free scope to act as they choose towards each other, no one is taking oversight of them. “The source of all transgression is denial of the providence of God.”
Eze_9:10. The people had taken the position that they only had rights, and yet that position is commanded by another. “And I also, my eye shall not spare … their way I put (give) upon their head.” The path of life which they are walking on turns up to smite their head with punishment. Ezekiel’s appealing question is not directly answered. The Lord “merely vindicates His justice by showing that, whatever amount of vengeance He might inflict, it did not exceed their sin. He would have us humbly acquiesce in His judgments, and wait and trust” (Fausset). The prophet sees that a people laden with iniquity go to meet their doom, and he makes no further cry for consideration of their case.
Eze_9:11. Scarcely had the answer of the Lord been received when “behold the man clothed in linen,” the chief of the guardians of the city, appearing by himself seemingly, “brought word, saying, I have done as Thou hast commanded me.” The marks have been affixed on as many as and in the manner in which he had been commissioned. Probably the other six were still carrying on their work (chap. Eze_11:13). “The counsel of the Lord, it shall stand.”
HOMILETICS
UNSATISFIED PRAYERS (Eze_9:8-11)
When God spares His servants at a time during which calamity overtakes others, or saves them when many go on in the broad way to destruction, they deeply grieve and earnestly pray for those who are thus overtaken. What they ask for seems not to be assured. They have prayed and wept in vain, they suppose, and a sore heart-trouble is produced. They wonder if the Lord has shut up His compassions; if prayer is nothing but a cry. They doubt if they have prayed aright; if they have misconceived the ways of the Lord. To such questions Ezekiel’s case here may suggest direction and solace about unsatisfied prayers.
I. Such prayers may come from true sympathy with misery. Men, who have learned to love their fellowmen because of love to their Father, do not take precautions merely for their own safety in the face of impending suffering. If they are secure themselves they cannot be at ease while their neighbours are in danger of being swept away as with a flood. The sins, sorrows, deaths of others cast a heavy burden upon their souls, and they bow down in utter self-abandonment before God to besecch Him to take pity on the impenitent and doomed. They place themselves between the living One and the condemned to death, and put forth the energies which love can command into their supplications. They weep with them that need to be wept for.
II. Such prayers may use the most effective grounds of appeal. They appeal to God as God. “Ah, Lord God!” They have no cure in such need. They can help only by prayers, and they present them to Him who hears prayer as to Him who alone is able to do what they long for. In weakness and in conscious self-unworthiness they come boldly to the throne of grace and plead, “Wilt Thou act in such severity, Thou who hast made us and fashioned us, and who knowest our frame? Wilt Thou forget the work of Thine own hands and let it perish? Wilt Thou not show thyself to be the Lord mighty to save?” They appeal to His promises. “Israel,”—that was a name to touch the heart of God. For He had chosen the people, had nourished and brought them up as children, and in them meant to bless all the families of the earth. Were, then, all to be cut off—men women, and children? The remnant, to which so much has been pledged, would it too be discarded? Would He thus suffer His faithfulness and truth to fail? They appeal to His interests. “Jerusalem,”—those who have stood in the area of His manifested glory, who have been hearers of His word, who are the chief representatives of His people in covenant, who seem best adapted to maintain His way upon earth,—if they are sent down to darkness and death, where will He find a people to show forth His praise and saving health? His nature, His truth, His kingdom are grounds of prayer in which man’s selfish pleas have no part. “Do not disgrace the throne of Thy glory!”
III. Such prayers may be presented in submissiveness. “I fell upon my face.” God’s ways are beyond even a prophet’s comprehension. They trend too high and also too deep for us. We are disposed to count that to be confused which is only farther off than we can define, or to charge that with hardness which is only covered with a thin crust. Thus when deprecating the sufferings which befall our persons, our churches, the nations, we may take to questioning God, if not dictating to Him, Wilt Thou not take other steps? Wilt Thou not have regard to the prayers of the destitute? Wilt Thou not have respect to Thy great name whose glory is dearer to Thee than it can be to us? We are but of “yesterday and know nothing.”
IV. And such prayers may be based on misconceptions of God. As to His mercy. Sympathising friends think they would show pity, they would spare, when God does not, and their tendency is to count Him severe. This conclusion is unreasonable. When once we grasp the idea that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, we learn that they do not take in all the elements involved in divine mercy who surmise that the mercy of God is limited to the surveys of sense. We must rise beyond the range of the earthly for an ampler view of His rule. For Him, as righteous ruler, to spare those who reject His authority, who will not turn to Him in spite of all His endeavours, would be to connive at His own eternal dishonour. They would go on adding sin to sin. They would produce influences which would shake the loyalty of those who had been faithful to Him. There could be no mercy in a course which would cause such results.
As to His patience. We would have Him check the process of degeneracy in individuals, in churches, in states, at the very outset. We would have Him strike down the man who was leading others into evil as soon as he acquired a bad preeminence. We would not have Him wait till sin is excessive. Therefore do we fancy He has been too patient, and yet, with strange inconsistency, when He is punishing, we fall down and urgently ask if He will not stay His hand! We cannot measure out His patience thus. Both the deferring of punishment and the execution of punishment are ordered in wisdom and love. They must be, for the Lord reigneth, and we should stay on Him, let the darkness about Him be what it may.
As to means of carrying out His will. We acknowledge that the law which binds penalty to guilt is just and good, and can be nothing if it is not irrefragable. We grant that the doom should somehow be in correspondence with the sin. But what will be wisest and most impressive way of manifesting the connection which thus subsists? We are utterly unable to tell, and our prayers might be offered against the very method which we would assent to as right and best, if we knew all. But assuming that there are two chief classes of sins to provide against—inhumanity and denial of God’s interference with the doings of men—we should look for a wonderful variety of treatment according to men’s circumstances and place in the world’s development. It is for us not only to pray for the mercy we wish for troubled souls, but also to wait on the Lord so as to see His goings. “Those who take heed to the signs of the times can hardly but observe the tendency of our age to ignore the God of special providence, saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?’ ” Nor can we fail to mark a prevalence of dishonesty, brutality, self-pleasing, which indicate sad disregard of love to man. What may follow we leave with God while we cry for His grace. Only we do well to remember that judgment will begin at the house of God, and that the sufferings of unfaithful Christians will be more awful than those of rebellious Jews. “What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy living and godliness!”
V. Yet such prayers are answered, but otherwise than directly. We are too disposed to conclude that many of our prayers are not granted—prayers in which we had not regard to iniquity but to Christ. It may be, it is true that often they are not granted in accordance with the express form which we had hoped for, and we become like thoughtless children who complain that their wishes for good are not attended to because their father does not give them the very thing they want and at the time they ask it. We ought to have more confidence in our Heavenly Father than that complaint implies. He who says, “Call upon me and I will answer thee,” “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do,” is true and faithful. What He has said He will do, only it lies with Him to settle both the form and the season of the answer. He brought the man who had been setting a mark upon the mourners in Zion in view of Ezekiel, and that appearance told Ezekiel that his prayer was really answered. He said to Paul, in response to his thrice-told entreaty, “My grace is sufficient for thee; for my power is made perfect in weakness;” and though that was not what the Apostle besought for—the removal of the thorn in the flesh—it was tantamount to that, as the promise secured him against being overcome by his infliction. Were we able to see better, we might come to say of many of our apparently unsatisfied prayers, “Verily God hath heard me; He hath attended to the voice of my prayer.”
Wait for the unfolding of the sealed book, and then will many rejoice to learn that they had not prayed in vain when they besought that God would glorify Himself by saving men. They died in the sorrow of hopes disappointed; they live in the joy of better things than they could conceive. Let us learn to trust God as revealed in Jesus Christ, His Son, and endeavour to observe more closely how He responds to our prayers.
FAITHFULNESS IN STEWARDSHIP (Eze_9:11)
In fulfilling any work for the manifestation of the Lord’s will—
I. There should be regard to the Lord who appoints it. A position in His service is wished for sometimes because it is counted honourable and respectable, or because it is profitable, or because it is best to take it even if we have no interest in its duties. All such motives are condemned. The only one which can stand in the light is that which prompts us to act because we have been directed by considerations of His will, and are desirous to please Him to the utmost. “He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord.” This is capable of being an ever-present motive to faithfulness. It may influence us everywhere, whether we eat or drink, buy or sell, worship alone or with others. He is always at our right hand where we are and where we are called to serve, and we can do whatever we do as before Him. An elastic motive. When we need much power we are moved towards the treasures of Almightiness; when we need little, we come to the same Mighty One who is wise to measure out the adequate supply. He will furnish us for a gentle or a stern service, for presenting a reward or a threat, for expressing a sentence of mercy or of condemnation. We serve not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord,—that will regulate us in our “daily round,” and in dying for Him if need be.
II. Regard to the manner of obeying. “As Thou hast commanded.” Faithfulness is shown not in doing the appointed service with slovenliness, as if any way of fulfilling it would be sufficient; not in self-regard, as if the way we would like to do it would be satisfactory; not with deference to the opinions and habits of any men, as if they had authority to curtail or enlarge the commands of God; not with limitations, as if we could stop at any point but the point which the Holy One has defined. No; the work of the watcher is not done till he has reached, taught, comforted, saved all whom the Lord has characterised. “He will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
III. Regard to the account to be rendered. No faithful servant need go in fear to the tribunal of the Great King. They who obtain mercy to be faithful have boldness in the day of judgment, are not ashamed before Christ at His coming, give in their account with joy, and are enabled to say, in reference to the charge which had been committed to them, “Lord, it is done as Thou hast commanded.” He is the pattern of perfect faithfulness who did always that which was pleasing to the Father; who could say at the close of the day in which he did His work, “I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do,” and who will meet the consummation of all things with the words, “Of all that Thou hast given me I have lost nothing.” Let us imitate Christ Jesus in doing the will of our Father, not negligently, or equivocally, or incompletely, but so as “to be counted worthy of that world, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Let us, in all we do, for the glory of Christ’s name, follow His example, and report every matter to our God in prayer and supplication.
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.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 9:8 Ezekiel feared that he might be the only…
9:8 Ezekiel feared that he might be the only person left after the Lord expressed his fury.
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