Ezekiel 9King James Version
Six men with slaughter weapons come from the upper gate. A seventh, clothed in linen with a writer's inkhorn, goes first through the city and marks the foreheads of those who sigh and cry for all the abominations. The others are told to slay the rest, beginning at the sanctuary.
Six men with weapons appear at the temple, plus one clothed in linen with an inkhorn. God sends the linen-man to mark the foreheads of all who grieve over the abominations, then sends the six to kill everyone else. Ezekiel watches the slaughter begin and cries out. God answers that the guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is too great and that the marked ones alone are spared. The glory moves to the threshold.
Those who mourn over evil rather than accommodate it are marked for protection: grief over injustice is itself a form of righteousness.
4: "Go 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." Surviving the judgment is connected to having felt it before it arrived.
The vision continues from chapter 8, still set in the temple precincts. Ezekiel watches the slaughter advance from sanctuary outward, starting with the elders at the altar. His intercession is the only verbal resistance in the chapter. God's answer is unsparing: the land is full of blood.
The six executioners; the man in linen with the inkhorn who marks the faithful; Ezekiel who intercedes; the LORD who orders and explains; the inhabitants of Jerusalem divided into marked and unmarked.
The marked foreheads here anticipate Revelation's seal of the servants of God (Revelation 7) and have been read in Jewish and Christian traditions as a prototype of divine protection amid judgment. The Hebrew letter used for the mark (tav) was written as an X in ancient scripts, which early Christian readers found significant.
For when evil is everywhere and you feel helpless to stop it. The chapter says: those who are grieved by what is happening are already doing something important, and that grief is not invisible to God.
1He 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.
2And, 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.
3And 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;
4And 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.
5And 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:
6Slay 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.
7And 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.
8And 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?
9Then 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.
10And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head.
11And, 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.