Ezekiel 9 - Introduction
IX. This chapter forms part of the same continuous vision with the preceding one, but while the former is occupied with the exposure of the sin, this latter specifies the consequent punishment.... [ Continue Reading ]
IX. This chapter forms part of the same continuous vision with the preceding one, but while the former is occupied with the exposure of the sin, this latter specifies the consequent punishment.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE CRIED ALSO... WITH A LOUD VOICE. — The pronoun refers to the same Being as throughout the previous chapter. His nature is sufficiently shown by the prophet’s address to Him in Ezekiel 9:8 : “Ah, Lord God!” The “loud voice” was to give emphasis to what is said; it is the natural expression of the... [ Continue Reading ]
ONE MAN AMONG THEM WAS CLOTHED WITH LINEN. — He was _among_ them, but not of them. There were six with weapons, and this one without a weapon formed the seventh, thus making up the mystical number so often used in Scripture. He was “clothed in linen,” the ordinary priestly garment, and the special g... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GLORY... TO THE THRESHOLD. — In Ezekiel 8:4 the prophet had seen the same vision as he has described in Ezekiel 1 standing at the entrance of the court of the priests, and there it still remained. The word _cherub_ is here used collectively. Now that special glory above the cherubim, which repre... [ Continue Reading ]
SET A MARK UPON THE FOREHEADS. — The word for mark is literally a _Tau,_ the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This, in many of the ancient alphabets, and especially in that in use among the Hebrews up to this time, and long retained upon their coins, was in the form of a cross — X or +. Much stre... [ Continue Reading ]
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.) The destruction was to be utter and complete, and was to begin a... [ Continue Reading ]
DEFILE THE HOUSE. — The utmost possible pollution under the Mosaic economy was the touch of a dead body. (See Numbers 19:11; 1 Kings 13:2; 2 Kings 23:16.) It might be thought that the Temple would be spared this defilement; but not only must the execution of justice override all technicalities, as a... [ Continue Reading ]
I WAS LEFT. — The words imply _left alone._ The prophet had just before seen the courts of the sanctuary thronged with idolaters in the full glory of their heaven-defying sin. Now it is a city of the dead, and he is left standing alone in the midst of the dead. He falls upon his face in consternatio... [ Continue Reading ]