Ezekiel
Ezekiel 9
Big idea: Six executioners and a man in linen with a writer's inkhorn are summoned, and the first instruction is not to kill but to mark: go through the city and put a mark on the foreheads of the people who sigh and groan over the abominations done in it.
The coals from between the wheels in chapter 10 are scattered over the city that has just been marked.
9:1–11 — Set a mark on the foreheads
The scribe is distinguished from the executioners by his equipment — a writer's inkhorn rather than a weapon — and his task comes first. The mark is a tav, the last letter of the alphabet, written in that period as a cross, and it is put on people identified only by their grief: those who sigh and cry over the abominations.
1 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.” 2 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. 3 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. 4 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.” 5 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. 6 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. 7 He said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” They went out, and struck in the city. 8 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?” 9 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.’ 10 As for me also, my eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head.” 11 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.”
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).