9:1–2 The previous chapter ended with the failure of the loud and ineffectual cries of the idolaters in Jerusalem to penetrate the Lord’s ears. This chapter opens with the Lord’s effective cry ringing in the prophet’s ears as the Lord brings judgment to bear upon Jerusalem, summoning his warriors against the city. This marks a shift from the largely visual nature of the revelations in chapter 8 to the more auditory nature of chapter 9. In chapter 8 the prophet is shown everything that happens, whereas here he is backstage, as it were, listening to the commands given by the Lord of Glory but not actually seeing them unfold.

“Executioners” (Hb. pequddot; 9:1) are guards—the Levites were to guard the sanctuary against the intrusion of anyone unclean onto sacred ground, and they were to put offenders to death (cf. 2 Kings 11:18; Ezek. 44:11). Clearly, in light of chapter 8 that task has been neglected. Indeed, Ezekiel 44 places part of the blame for the earlier defilement of the temple on the practice by many of the kings of Judah to replace the Levites as temple guards with uncircumcised foreign mercenaries, who could hardly have been expected to ensure ritual cleanliness. The mercenaries’ task was to protect the king, not the purity of the temple.54

This failure to safeguard the purity of the sanctuary is catastrophic for Jerusalem, as the heavenly guards step in to fulfill the judging role the earthly guards have failed to undertake. Seven men come at the Lord’s call, from the direction of the north gate (9:2), whence Israel’s enemies would normally come. Six of these men are armed with a “weapon of destruction,” most likely some form of club, while the seventh is clothed in priestly garments of linen and armed with only a writing case (v. 2). These men are summoned to the bronze altar, in the center of the outer courtyard of the temple.

In the context of the divine summons it is natural to recognize these seven men as angelic figures; however, without that context they could equally easily be human warriors. The six angelic destroyers are the heavenly counterparts of the Babylonian warriors who will be summoned to put this vision into effect. As Matthew Henry puts it, “One angel served to destroy the first-born of Egypt, and the camp of the Assyrians, but here are six.”55 In the face of such an assault, who could survive? Meanwhile, the seventh priestly figure may represent Ezekiel’s own task as a prophet of passing through a people designated for destruction, separating the righteous and the wicked, marking out those who “sigh and groan”56 over the abominations committed in Jerusalem (v. 4).

9:3–4 The glory of the God of Israel represents the divine presence, previously enthroned in the temple’s holy of holies, with the ark and its associated cherubim serving as the footstool for the invisible divine throne (cf. Ps. 80:1). Now the shekinah glory has risen from God’s throne, whence he ruled on behalf of his people; he is preparing to leave the temple and the city to its fate. First, however, the Lord summons the man with the writing case to pass through the city before its destruction and mark out the foreheads of all those lamenting the abominations taking place in the city.57 Literally, he is instructed to “mark them with a mark”; “mark” renders taw, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Since taw in early Hebrew was drawn in the shape of a cross (later an X), early Christian apologists seized on the similarity to the baptismal practice of marking a child with the sign of the cross on the forehead.58 The Reformers, who saw this practice as superstitious, were unconvinced by the parallel.

Not everyone in Jerusalem is implicated in the widespread idolatry, and the Lord will not sweep away the righteous with the wicked (cf. Gen. 18:23; for a similar sealing of the righteous in the midst of wrath cf. Revelation 7). Yet it is clear that the presence of this righteous remnant is not enough to save the city (cf. Ezekiel 14); rather, the Lord will preserve those belonging to him amid the widespread destruction, just as their forefathers were marked out for protection when the destroying angel of that time passed through Egypt, killing all the firstborn children (Exodus 12).

9:5–7 Immediately after the priestly figure completes his work of marking some for salvation, the destroying angels are unleashed to “strike”59 without compassion or pity—not merely against the firstborn children, as at the time of the exodus, but old and young, men and women, including those normally thought of as helpless and innocent. If even these people are executed, there is certainly no hope of clemency for able-bodied men. The judgment will begin with the center of the abominations, the temple itself. The twenty-five elders bowing down to the sun (cf. 8:16) will be the first to fall, in the courtyard of the temple. Normally, executions could not be carried out within the temple complex, for fear of the corpse’s defiling sacred ground. This is why Queen Athaliah was dragged outside the temple before being executed (cf. 2 Kings 11:15–16). However, the Jerusalem temple has already been so defiled by the abominations performed within it that no such concern is necessary. In fact, the Lord himself gives the command, “Defile the house!” (Ezek. 9:7; cf. 7:22). Once God’s presence has left the building, there is nothing sacred about the space any longer.

9:8–11 In the midst of this awful carnage, left alone by himself, the prophet fears he might be the sole surviving remnant of the destruction. He cries out to God, asking, “Ah, Lord God! Will you destroy all the remnant of Israel?” It is striking that the Lord does not immediately answer in the negative; instead he responds by reiterating the depth of Israel’s sin and guilt. The people have filled the land with blood and the city with injustice (v. 9) to match the comprehensive idolatry depicted in the previous chapter. The sense is clearly conveyed that it would be perfectly just for the Lord to wipe the earth clean of such a people and leave no survivors at all. Yet at this precise moment the priestly figure returns and reports the faithful execution of his task; as in Noah’s flood, a remnant will be rescued. The priestly figure has marked out for salvation all those who sigh and cry over the abominations of the city. We are not told how many remain (unlike in 1 Kings 19:18), but the clear impression is conveyed that some at least have remained faithful and have been protected through the holocaust. The Lord will not entirely destroy the remnant of Israel; there is still a future for his people.