Asbury Bible Commentary – B. Death Pronounced Upon Jerusalem (9:1-11)
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B. Death Pronounced Upon Jerusalem (9:1-11)

B. Death Pronounced Upon Jerusalem (9:1-11)

As God continued the vision of Jerusalem and the temple, Ezekiel must have been startled to hear God shout, “Bring on the executioners of the city . . . !” (v.1, Greenberg, 174). The seven men who responded stood at the bronze altar in the temple courtyard. One of them marked the foreheads of those few in Jerusalem who still protested the sins taking place in Jerusalem and the temple. By marking them this remnant would be sealed or protected against the judgment of Yahweh upon the city and temple (9:6). Ezekiel discovered the sad truth that God’s judgment and wrath can and will come against God’s own house (see Jer 7:1-15). How true that judgment must begin at the house of God (1Pe 4:17), but how true also that those who remain true and faithful will be saved. It is not enough to have a good start; one must continually be faithful.