Ezekiel 9:5

And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Go ye after him.—No interval is allowed. Here, as in the corresponding visions in Revelation referred to above, judgment waits only until those whom mercy will spare have been protected. (Comp. the deliverance of Lot, Genesis 19:22-25.) The destruction was to be utter and complete, and was to begin at the sanctuary, where the gross sin of the people had culminated. This is one of those many important passages in Scripture (comp. Matthew 25:41; Luke 23:30; Revelation 6:16, &c.) in which God reveals Himself as one who will ultimately take vengeance without pity upon those who have rejected and insulted His mercy and long-suffering kindness. The revelation of future wrath is no less clear and distinct than that of love to those who trust in Him.

Benson Commentary

Ezekiel 9:5-7. To the others he said, Go ye after him and smite — That is, cut off and destroy all that are either guilty of, or accessory to the abominations of Jerusalem, and even all that do not sigh and cry for them, or that are not affected with grief and sorrow on account of them. Let not your eyes spare — You must not save any whom God has doomed to destruction. None needs to be more merciful than God is, and he had said, Ezekiel 8:18, My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity. Take notice, reader, those that live in sin, and hate to be reformed, shall perish in sin, and deserve not to be pitied; for they might easily have prevented their ruin, but would not. Slay utterly old and young, &c. — Make no distinction of age or sex. This was awfully fulfilled, partly by the sword of the Chaldeans, 2 Chronicles 36:17, and partly by famine and pestilence, each of which calamities swept away multitudes. And begin at my sanctuary — That sanctuary, the horrid profanation of which Ezekiel had seen, as is described in the former chapter; they must begin there, because there the wickedness began which provoked God to send these judgments: the debaucheries of the priests were the poisoning of the springs from which all the corruption of the streams flowed. The wickedness of the sanctuary was of all other the most offensive to God, and therefore there the slaughter must begin. Begin there to try if the people will take warning by the judgments of God upon their priests, and will repent and reform: begin there, that all the world may see and know that the Lord, whose name is Jehovah, is a jealous God, and hates sin most in those that are nearest to him. Indeed when judgments are abroad in the earth, they commonly begin at the house of God, 1 Peter 4:17, because such persons sin against greater light and clearer convictions, and abuse greater privileges than others. You only have I known, and therefore will I punish you, Amos 3:2. God’s temple is a sanctuary, a place of refuge and protection for penitent sinners, but not for any that go on still in their trespasses; neither the sacredness of the place, nor the eminence of any one’s office or station in it, will be their security. But come not near any man upon whom is the mark — Do not harm, nay, do not so much as threaten, or put in fear, any one of these. The sense is, I will so order it by my providence, that none whom I have designed for preservation shall be destroyed. This prediction was remarkably fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar gave particular orders that Jeremiah should be protected, Baruch and Ebed- melech were secured, and it is likely others of Jeremiah’s friends for his sake; God had promised that it should go well with his remnant, and that they should be well treated, Jeremiah 15:11; and we have reason to think that none of the mourning, praying remnant fell by the sword of the Chaldeans, but God found out some way or other to secure them all; as in the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, the Christians were all secured in a city on the mountains, called Pella, and none of them perished with the unbelieving Jews. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house — Namely, those who committed idolatry in the several courts and apartments belonging to the temple; that is, they strictly observed the orders given them, and began at God’s sanctuary, as they were commanded. And he said, Defile the house, and fill the courts with slain — God, abhorring the temple, as having been polluted with idolatry, here not only declares that he will no longer own it for his place of residence, but delivers up both the inner and outward courts belonging to it to be polluted with blood and slaughter. Let us observe well, that if the servants of God’s house defile it with their sins, God will justly suffer its enemies to defile it with their acts of violence. If the ministers and members of God’s church pollute it with their errors and impieties, God will take away its wall of defence, and expose it to the ravages of persecutors. And they went forth and slew in the city — So it was represented to the prophet in his vision, which was still continued, as a prediction of what should shortly be done in reality.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:5-11 The slaughter must begin at the sanctuary, that all may see and know that the Lord hates sin most in those nearest to him. He who was appointed to protect, reported the matter. Christ is faithful to the trust reposed in him. Is he commanded by his Father to secure eternal life to the chosen remnant? He says, Of all that thou hast given me, I have lost none. If others perish, and we are saved, we must ascribe the difference wholly to the mercy of our God, for we too have deserved wrath. Let us still continue to plead in behalf of others. But where the Lord shows no mercy he does no injustice; he only recompenses men's ways.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

mercy precedes judgment. So in the case of Sodom Genesis 19, and in the last day Luke 21:18, Luke 21:28; Revelation 7:1. This accords with the eschatological character of the predictions in this chapter (see the introduction of Ezekiel).

A mark - literally, "Tau," the name of the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The old form of the letter was that of a cross. The Jews have interpreted this sign variously, some considering that "Tau," being the last of the Hebrew letters, and so closing the alphabet, denoted completeness, and thus the mark indicated the completeness of the sorrow for sin in those upon whom it was placed. Others again observed that "Tau" was the first letter of Torah ("the Law") and that the foreheads were marked as of men obedient to the Law. Christians, noting the resemblance of this letter in its most ancient form to a cross, have seen herein a reference to the cross with which Christians were signed. The custom for pagan gods and their votaries to bear certain marks furnishes instances, in which God was pleased to employ symbolism, generally in use, to express higher and more divine truth. The sign of the cross in baptism is an outward sign of the designation of God's elect, who at the last day shall be exempted from the destruction of the ungodly Matthew 24:22, Matthew 24:31.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. the others—the six officers of judgment (Eze 9:2).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The others; the six slaughtermen.

He said; the God of glory, or Christ, who appeared in great glory.

In my hearing; a note of certainty of the thing.

Go ye after him; linger not ere you set forward against the wicked, yet still go after, that you destroy none that are to be sealed; so also Revelation 7:3.

Through the city; this order must be observed through the whole city, and through the whole execution. Smite; strike each with his weapon of perdition, so let every one fall by the sword, or famine, &c.

Let not your eye spare; do all with severity, act the Chaldeans’ part indeed, and without remorse execute my just displeasure by your cruelty.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And, to the others he said in mine hearing,.... To the other six men that had the slaughter weapons in their hands:

go ye after him through the city; that is, after the man clothed with linen; for he was sent out first to take care of the righteous, and preserve them; and the rest were not suffered to stir till he was gone; and then they are bid to go after him. The Syriac version is,

"to them that were with him he said to them before me, go through the city after me;''

as if these were the words of the man clothed with linen to the other six; and so the Arabic version; of it the other is the true reading, and gives the right sense, as the following words show:

and smite; the inhabitants of the city:

let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity; not that the Chaldeans were inclined to mercy and pity, for they were a cruel and barbarous people; but this is said to show the resentment of God against the sins of the Jews; and that it was his will they should act the severe part they did.

Geneva Study Bible

And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. The other executioners were to follow the footsteps of the seventh man, and slay without discrimination all not marked by him.

Ezekiel 9:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Divine Command

Ezekiel 9:4. And Jehovah said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and mark a cross upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which take place in their midst. Ezekiel 9:5. And to those he said in my ears: Go through the city behind him, and smite. Let not your eye look compassionately, and do not spare. Ezekiel 9:6. Old men, young men, and maidens, and children, and women, slay to destruction: but ye shall not touch any one who has the cross upon him; and begin at my sanctuary. And they began with the old men, who were before the house. Ezekiel 9:7. And He said to them, defile the house, and fill the courts with slain; go ye out. And they went out, and smote in the city. - God commands the man provided with the writing materials to mark on the forehead with a cross all the persons in Jerusalem who mourn over the abominations of the nation, in order that they may be spared in the time of the judgment. תּו, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, had the form of a cross in the earlier writing. התוה תּו, to mark a ת, is therefore the same as to make a mark in the form of a cross; although there was at first no other purpose in this sign than to enable the servants employed in inflicting the judgment of God to distinguish those who were so marked, so that they might do them no harm. Ezekiel 9:6. And this was the reason why the תּו was to be marked upon the forehead, the most visible portion of the body; the early Christians, according to a statement in Origen, looked upon the sign itself as significant, and saw therein a prophetic allusion to the sign of the cross as the distinctive mark of Christians. A direct prophecy of the cross of Christ is certainly not to be found here, since the form of the letter Tâv was the one generally adopted as a sign, and, according to Job 31:35, might supply the place of a signature. Nevertheless, as Schmieder has correctly observed, there is something remarkable in this coincidence to the thoughtful observer of the ways of God, whose counsel has carefully considered all before hand, especially when we bear in mind that in the counterpart to this passage (Revelation 7:3) the seal of the living God is stamped upon the foreheads of the servants of God, who are to be exempted from the judgment, and that according to Revelation 14:1 they had the name of God written upon their foreheads. So much, at any rate, is perfectly obvious from this, namely, that the sign was not arbitrarily chosen, but was inwardly connected with the fact which it indicated; just as in the event upon which our vision is based (Exodus 12:13, Exodus 12:22.) the distinctive mark placed upon the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, in order that the destroying angel might pass them by, namely, the smearing of the doorposts with the blood of the paschal lamb that had been slain, was selected on account of its significance and its corresponding to the thing signified. The execution of this command is passed over as being self-evident; and it is not till Ezekiel 9:11 that it is even indirectly referred to again.

In Ezekiel 9:5, Ezekiel 9:6 there follows, first of all, the command given to the other six men. They are to go through the city, behind the man clothed in white linen, and to smite without mercy all the inhabitants of whatever age or sex, with this exception, that they are not to touch those who are marked with the cross. The על for אל before תּחוס is either a slip of the pen, or, as the continued transmission of so striking an error is very improbable, is to be accounted for from the change of א into ע, which is so common in Aramaean. The Chetib עיניכם is the unusual form grammatically considered, and the singular, which is more correct, has been substituted as Keri. תּהרגוּ is followed by למשׁחית, to increase the force of the words and show the impossibility of any life being saved. They are to make a commencement at the sanctuary, because it has been desecrated by the worship of idols, and therefore has ceased to be the house of the Lord. To this command the execution is immediately appended; they began with the old men who were before the house, i.e., they began to slay them. האנשׁים הזּקנים are neither the twenty-five priests (Ezekiel 8:16) nor the seventy elders (Ezekiel 8:11). The latter were not לפני הבּית, but in a chamber by the outer temple gate; whereas לפני הבּית, in front of the temple house, points to the inner court. This locality makes it natural to think of priests, and consequently the lxx rendered ממּקדּשּׁי by ἀπὸ τῶν ἁγίων μου. But the expression אנשׁים זקנים is an unsuitable one for the priests. We have therefore no doubt to think of men advanced in years, who had come into the court possibly to offer sacrifice, and thereby had become liable to the judgment. In Ezekiel 9:7 the command, which was interrupted in Ezekiel 9:6, is once more resumed. They are to defile the house, i.e., the temple, namely, by filling the courts with slain. It is in this way that we are to connect together, so far as the sense is concerned, the two clauses, "defile...and fill." This is required by the facts of the case. For those slain "before the house" could only have been slain in the courts, as there was no space between the temple house and the courts in which men could have been found and slain. But לפני cannot be understood as signifying "in the neighbourhood of the temple," as Kliefoth supposes, for the simple reason that the progressive order of events would thereby be completely destroyed. The angels who were standing before the altar of burnt-offering could not begin their work by going out of the court to smite the sinners who happened to be in the neighbourhood of the temple, and then returning to the court to do the same there, and then again going out into the city to finish their work there. They could only begin by slaying the sinners who happened to be in the courts, and after having defiled the temple by their corpses, by going out into the city to slay all the ungodly there, as is related in the second clause of the verse (Ezekiel 9:7).