Ezekiel 9

CHAPTER 9

Idolaters Killed (9:1–11)

1–4 The vision of the previous chapter continues. While Ezekiel (in the vision) was still standing in the inner court of the temple (Ezekiel 8:16), he heard the Lord calling for six guards (destroying angels) and a seventh angel with a writing kit (verses 1–2). They stood beside the bronze altar, the altar of burnt offering (2 Chronicles 4:1).

Then the glory of. . .God went up from its usual location above the cherubim of the ark (see Exodus 25:10–22; 40:34–35) and moved to the threshold of the temple (verse 3). Because of the detestable things going on inside the temple, the Lord’s presence was leaving that place. The Lord ordered the seventh angel to take his writing kit and place a protective mark on the foreheads of all those who grieved and lamented over the sins of Judah (verse 4); these were the remnant of Judah that the Lord planned to save (see Revelation 7:3; 9:4).

5–11 Then the Lord instructed the others (the six destroying angels) to go through the city and kill all those who did not have the protective mark on their foreheads¹⁸ (verses 5–6). When Ezekiel saw so many people being killed, he thought the Lord was going to destroy the entire remnant of Israel—in this context, Judah—and not spare anyone (verse 8). But the Lord had already planned to spare a tiny “remnant”—that is, those with the protective mark (verse 4). And when the man (angel) with the writing kit told the Lord, “I have done as you commanded” (verse 11), Ezekiel could be reassured that the faithful remnant would be spared.