Ezekiel 9

1-11 The Slaughter of the Idolaters

[Part of the Vision of Jerusalem]

• God calls for the executioners, and from the upper gate come six men with weapons for slaughter and with them a man clothed in linen, with a writing case at his side.
• They stand beside the bronze altar.
• God’s glory that had been on the cherub goes to the threshold. God has left his house without protection. I Kings 8:1-11 explains that when the ark of the covenant was placed in the covenant, the glory of the LORD filled the temple.
• He tells the man in linen to go through Jerusalem and mark everyone who is distressed about the abominations in the temple.
• Then he tells the others to kill everyone who does not have a mark – men, women, and children – and to start with those in the temple.
• Ezekiel asks him if he will destroy those in the rest of Israel like he is destroying Jerusalem, and is told Yes, because the whole land is full of perversity.
• The man in linen comes back and reports that he has done as God commanded.