1And he called out to me in a loud voice, saying, “Bring near those appointed over the city, each with his weapon of destruction in his hand.” 2And, look, six men were coming by the way of the upper gate, which faces to the north, and each had his mace in his hand, and a man in their midst was dressed in linen with a scribe’s case at his waist. And they came and stood by the bronze altar. 3And the glory of the LORD had ascended from the cherub on which it had been to the threshold of the house, and He called out to the man wearing linen with a scribe’s case at his waist. 4And the LORD said to him, “Pass through the city, in the midst of Jerusalem, and trace a mark on the foreheads of the men groaning and moaning over all the abominations done in her midst.” 5And to these He said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him and strike, let your eye not spare, nor show pity. 6Elder, young man and virgin, little ones and women you shall slay, destroying. But do not approach any man upon whom is the mark. And from My sanctuary you shall begin.” 7And they began with the elders who were in front of the house. 8And He said to them, “Defile the house and fill the courts with corpses. Go forth.” And they went forth and struck in the city. 9And it happened as they were striking that I remained, and I fell on my face and cried out and said, “Woe, O Master, LORD, are You destroying all the remnant of Israel as You pour out Your wrath on Jerusalem?” 10And He said to me, “The crime of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is filled with bloodguilt and the city filled with injustice, for they have said, ‘The LORD has abandoned the land, and the LORD does not see.’ 11And I on My part, My eye shall not spare nor will I show pity. I will bring their ways down on their head.” 12And, look, the man dressed in linen with the case at his waist brought back word, saying, “I have done as You have charged.”
CHAPTER 9 NOTES
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1. those appointed. Though the Hebrew term suggests “officials,” or “appointed ones,” Greenberg notes that this same root is also associated with punishment or retribution, and so he renders it more grimly as “executioners.”
2. mace. This specification of the identity of the “weapons of destruction” points to an especially bloody and brutal implementation of the command of destruction—not with sword thrusts, but with the bashing of heads.
a man in their midst was dressed in linen. This makes a total of seven, the sanctified number. He wears linen like the priests (in Daniel, by extension, angels will be dressed in linen).
a scribe’s case. He will use his pen and ink to make the marks on the foreheads of those to be saved.
4. trace a mark on the foreheads. The word for “mark,” taw, is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In paleo-Hebrew script, the form of this letter was an X. The saving mark on the forehead recalls the mark that saves Cain from retribution.
groaning and moaning. The translation imitates the Hebrew sound-play, haneʾenaḥim wehaneʾenaqim.
5. let your eye not spare, nor show pity. These fierce phrases are a refrain through this whole large prophecy, repeatedly attached to God, but here to His agents.
6. Elder, young man and virgin, little ones and women you shall slay. Although other prophets foresee a comprehensive disaster that will sweep over the entire people, Ezekiel is distinctive in imagining an active undertaking of genocidal killing by executioners commanded by God.
7. the elders who were in front of the house. Presumably, these are the paganizing elders, previously seen within the Temple, who now have come out in front of it.
8. Defile the house and fill the courts with corpses. Corpses intrinsically defile a place. The command to defile the Temple is shocking, but as Greenberg notes, it has already been defiled by the abomination of idol worship and hence is no longer a fit place for the worship of YHWH.
9. are You destroying all the remnant of Israel. Some interpreters have taken this to contradict the saving of those marked on the forehead. In fact, it makes emotional sense: Ezekiel, confronted in his vision with the bloody spectacle of the Temple courts filled with corpses, and men, women and children bludgeoned to death with maces everywhere, is devastated and feels as if the entire people were being wiped out.
10. The crime of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great. Ezekiel’s God is perhaps the most implacable of the many versions of God in the Hebrew Bible.