Ezekiel 9:1

CHAPTER IX

The vision in this chapter seems intended to denote the general

destruction of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, excepting a few

pious individuals that were distressed at the abominations that

were committed in the land; who, in order to be delivered from

the general calamity, were MARKED, in allusion, perhaps, to the

custom of eastern princes, who marked their servants in the

forehead, or rather to the custom very frequent among the Pagan

worshippers, of indelibly imprinting on different parts of

their body the marks of their idols. To indicate, likewise,

that God was soon to forsake the temple, the shechinah, or

glorious symbol of his presence, is seen to remove from the

inner sanctuary to the threshold or door of the temple, 1-7.

The prophet intercedes for his people; but God, on account of

the greatness of their sins, will not be entreated, 8-11.

NOTES ON CHAP. IX

Verse Ezekiel 9:1. Cause them that have charge over the city] By those six men with destroying weapons the Chaldeans are represented, who had received commission to destroy the city; and when the north is mentioned in such cases, Chaldea and the Chaldean armies are generally intended. There appears to have been six men with a sort of slaughter-bills, and one man with an inkhorn. These may represent the seven counsellors of the eastern monarchs, who always saw the king's face, and knew all the secrets of the government. One of them was that minister who had the office of reporting concerning criminals, who carried the book of death and the book of life into the presence of the king, where the names were entered of criminals who were destined to suffer, and of those who were either considered as innocent or recommended to mercy; those of the former in the book of death, those of the latter in the book of life. This person with the inkhorn might be termed, in our phrase, the recorder.