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BOOK 26 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Ezekiel 9

Ezekiel book home•Chapter 9 of 48•11 verses
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REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Ezekiel 9 Overview

Ezekiel sees heavenly executioners summoned against Jerusalem and a linen-clothed figure marking those who sigh and cry over the city’s abominations. Judgment begins at the sanctuary, while Ezekiel intercedes in anguish and the LORD explains that the land is full of bloodshed and perverseness.

EzekielBook
9Chapter
11Verses
Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Ezekiel 9

Coming from

In a vision Ezekiel is transported to Jerusalem and shown escalating abominations inside the temple: an image provoking jealousy, secret idolatry by elders, women weeping for Tammuz, and men worshipping the sun with their backs toward the temple. The LORD declares that such violence and provocation will bring judgment.

In this chapter

Ezekiel sees heavenly executioners summoned against Jerusalem and a linen-clothed figure marking those who sigh and cry over the city’s abominations. Judgment begins at the sanctuary, while Ezekiel intercedes in anguish and the LORD explains that the land is full of bloodshed and perverseness.

Leads into

The throne-chariot vision from chapter 1 reappears inside the temple judgment scene. Fire is taken from among the cherubim, Ezekiel explicitly identifies the living creatures as cherubim, and the glory of the LORD moves from the temple threshold to stand over the cherubim as departure progresses.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The mark distinguishes people by their response to Jerusalem’s corruption: they grieve over the abominations rather than embracing them. The vision dramatizes discriminating judgment inside a city often treated as corporately secure.

“Begin at my sanctuary” is especially sobering after chapter 8. The temple is not a refuge for leaders who have defiled it; judgment begins among those closest to its sacred space.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

God distinguishes between those who embrace evil and those who grieve over it

The mark shows that divine judgment is not portrayed as blind or morally indiscriminate.

Religious proximity can increase rather than reduce accountability

Judgment begins at the sanctuary where corruption had been exposed.

Intercession can coexist with submission to God’s justice

Ezekiel falls down and pleads even while the LORD explains why judgment is righteous.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Exodus 12:7-13

A visible mark also distinguishes households from judgment at Passover, though the two signs have different settings and meanings.

Revelation 7:3-4

Revelation uses sealing imagery for God’s servants, echoing Old Testament scenes of divine distinction such as Ezekiel 9.

1 Peter 4:17

Peter’s statement that judgment must begin at the house of God uses a related principle of heightened accountability among those identified with God.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not identify Ezekiel’s mark with a modern physical or technological mark.

It belongs to this vision of Jerusalem’s judgment and signifies God’s distinction of those who mourn the city’s abominations.

Do not conclude that grieving over sin is presented here as the means of earning eternal life.

The vision concerns preservation in a specific historical judgment, not the doctrine of justification.

Read Ezekiel 9 watching for…

the six men with destroying weapons

the linen-clothed man and his marking task

those who sigh and cry over abominations

judgment beginning at the sanctuary

Ezekiel’s intercession and the LORD’s explanation

TWBC REVIEW STANDARD

Plain language. Scripture first. Fact distinguished from inference. No filler. No fake certainty. Designed to help you read the Bible itself.

Chapter outline2 sections
1-4A mark is placed on those who sigh and cry over Jerusalem’s abominations5-11The executioners strike the city while those with the mark are spared
1

He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.

2

And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.

3

And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side;

4

And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

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:

6

Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.

7

And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.

8

And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?

9

Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.

10

And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head.

11

And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me.