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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
E Z E K I E L.
CHAP. IX.
The prophet had, in vision, seen the wickedness that was committed at
Jerusalem, in the foregoing chapter, and we may be sure that it was not
represented to him worse than really it was; now here follows, of
course, a representation of their ruin approaching; for when sin goes
before judgments come next. Here is,
I. Preparation made of instruments that were to be employed in the
destruction of the city,
II. The removal of the Shechinah from the cherubim to the threshold of
the temple,
III. Orders given to one of the persons employed, who is distinguished
from the rest, for the marking of a remnant to be preserved from the
common destruction,
IV. The warrant signed for the execution of those that were not marked,
and the execution begun accordingly,
V. The prophet’s intercession for the mitigation of the sentence, and a
denial of any mitigation, the decree having now gone forth,
VI. The report made by him that was to mark the pious remnant of what
he had done in that matter,
And this shows a usual method of Providence in the government of the
world.
| Preparations to Destroy Jerusalem; The Righteous Marked for Salvation. | B. C. 593. |
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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.
In these verses we have,
I. The summons given to Jerusalem’s destroyers to come forth and give
their attendance. He that appeared to the prophet
(ch. viii. 2),
that had brought him to Jerusalem and had shown the wickedness that was
done there, he cried, Cause those that have charge over the city to
draw near
(v. 1),
or, as it might better be read, and nearer the original, Those that
have charge over the city are drawing near. He had said
(ch. viii. 18),
I will deal in fury; now, says he to the prophet, thou shalt see
who are to be employed as the instruments of my wrath.
Appropinquaverunt visitationes civitatis–The visitations (or
visitors) of the city are at hand. They would not know the
day of their visitations in mercy, and now they are to be visited
in wrath. Observe,
1. How the notice of this is given to the prophet: He cried it in my
ears with a loud voice, which intimates the vehemency of him that
spoke; when men are highly provoked, and threaten in anger, they speak
aloud. Those that regard not the counsels God gives them in a still
small voice shall be made to hear the threatenings, to hear and
tremble. It denotes also the prophet’s unwillingness to be told this:
he was deaf on that ear, but there is no remedy, their sin will not
admit an excuse and therefore their judgment will not admit a delay:
“He cried it in my ears with a loud voice; he made me hear it,
and I heard it with a sad heart.”
2. What this notice is. There are those that have charge over the
city to destroy it, not the Chaldean armies, they are to be indeed
employed in this work, but they are not the visitors, they are only the
servants, or tools rather. God’s angels have received a charge now to
lay that city waste, which they had long had a charge to protect and
watch over. They are at hand, as destroying angels, as ministers of
wrath, for every man has his destroying weapon in his hand, as
the angel that kept the way of the tree of life with a flaming sword.
Note, Those that have by sin made God their enemy have made the good
angels their enemies too. These visitors are called and caused to
draw near. Note, God has ministers of wrath always within call,
always at command, invisible powers, by whom he accomplishes is
purposes. The prophet is made to see this in vision, that he might with
the greater assurance in his preaching denounce these judgments. God
told it him with a loud voice, taught it him with a strong hand
that it might make the deeper impression upon him and that he might
thus proclaim it in the people’s ears.
II. Their appearance, upon this summons, is recorded. Immediately
six men came
(v. 2),
one for each of the principal gates of Jerusalem. Two destroying angels
were sent against Sodom, but six against Jerusalem; for Jerusalem’s
doom in the judgment will be thrice as heavy as that of Sodom. There is
an angel watching at every gate to destroy, to bring in judgments from
every quarter, and to take heed that none escape. One angel served to
destroy the first-born of Egypt, and the camp of the Assyrians, but
here are six. In the Revelation we find seven that were to pour out
the vials of God’s wrath,
Rev. xvi. 1.
They came with every one a slaughter-weapon in his hand,
prepared for the work to which they were called. The nations of which
the king of Babylon’s army was composed, which some reckon to be six,
and the commanders of his army (of whom six are named as
principal,
may be called the slaughter-weapons in the hands of the angels.
The angels are thoroughly furnished for every service.
1. Observe whence they came–from the way of the higher gate, which
lies towards the north
(v. 2),
either because the Chaldeans came from the north
Out of the north an evil shall break forth) or because the image
of jealousy was set up at the door of the inner gate that looks
towards the north,
ch. viii. 3, 5.
At that gate of the temple the destroying angels entered, to show what
it was that opened the door to them. Note, That way that sin lies
judgments may be expected to come.
2. Observe where they placed themselves: They went in and stood
beside the brazen altar, on which sacrifices were wont to be
offered and atonement made. When they acted as destroyers they acted as
sacrificers, not from any personal revenge or ill-will, but with a pure
and sincere regard to the glory of God; for to his justice all they
slew were offered up as victims. They stood by the altar, as it
were to protect and vindicate that, and plead its righteous cause, and
avenge the horrid profanation of it. At the altar they were to receive
their commission to destroy, to intimate that the iniquity of
Jerusalem, like that of Eli’s house, was not to be purged by
sacrifice.
III. The notice taken of one among the destroying angels distinguished
in his habit from the rest, from whom some favour might be expected; it
should seem he was not one of the six, but among them, to see
that mercy was mixed with judgment,
v. 2.
This man was clothed with linen, as the priests were, and he had
a writer’s inkhorn hanging at his side, as anciently
attorneys and lawyers’ clerks had, which he was to make use of, as the
other six were to make use of their destroying weapons. Here the
honours of the pen exceeded those of the sword, but he was the Lord of
angels that made use of the writer’s inkhorn; for it is
generally agreed, among the best interpreters, that this man
represented Christ as Mediator saving those that are his from the
flaming sword of divine justice. He is our high priest, clothed
with holiness, for that was signified by the fine linen,
Rev. xix. 8.
As prophet he wears the writer’s inkhorn. The book of life is
the Lamb’s book. The great things of the law and gospel which God has
written to us are of his writing; for it is the Spirit of Christ, in
the writers of the scripture, that testifies to us, and the Bible is
the revelation of Jesus Christ. Note, It is a matter of great
comfort to all good Christians that, in the midst of the destroyers and
the destructions that are abroad, there is a Mediator, a great high
priest, who has an interest in heaven, and whom saints on earth have an
interest in.
IV. The removal of the appearance of the divine glory from over the
cherubim. Some think this was that usual display of the divine glory
which was between the cherubim over the mercy seat, in the most holy
place, that took leave of them now, and never returned; for it is
supposed that it was not in the second temple. Others think it was that
display of the divine glory which the prophet now saw over the cherubim
in vision; and this is more probable, because this is called the
glory of the God of Israel
(ch. viii. 4),
and this is it which he had now his eye upon; this was gone to the
threshold of the house, as it were to call to the servants that
attended without the door, to send them on their errand and give them
their instructions. And the removal of this, as well as the former,
might be significant of God’s departure from them, and leaving them
their house desolate; and when God goes all good goes, but he goes from
none till they first drive him from them. He went at first no further
than the threshold, that he might show how loth he was to
depart, and might give them both time and encouragement to invite his
return to them and his stay with them. Note, God’s departures from a
people are gradual, but gracious souls are soon award of the first step
he takes towards a remove. Ezekiel immediately observed that the
glory of the god of Israel had gone up from the cherub: and what is
a vision of angels if God be gone?
V. The charge given to the man clothed in linen to secure the
pious remnant from the general desolation. We do not read that this
Saviour was summoned and sent for, as the destroyers were; for he is
always ready, appearing in the presence of God for us; and to
him, as the most proper person, the care of those that are marked for
salvation is committed,
v. 4.
Now observe,
1. The distinguishing character of this remnant that is to be saved.
They are such as sigh and cry, sigh in themselves, as men in
pain and distress, cry to God in prayer, as men in earnest, because of
all the abominations that are committed in Jerusalem. It was not
only the idolatries they were guilty of, but all their other
enormities, that were abominations to God. These pious few had
witnessed against those abominations and had done what they could in
their places to suppress them; but, finding all their attempts for the
reformation of manners fruitless, they sat down, and sighted, and
cried, wept in secret, and complained to God, because of the
dishonour done to his name by their wickedness and the ruin it was
bringing upon their church and nation. Note, It is not enough that we
do not delight in the sins of others, and that we have not fellowship
with them, but we must mourn for them, and lay them to heart; we must
grieve for that which we cannot help, as those that hate sin for its
own sake, and have a tender concern for the souls of others, as David
and Lot, who vexed his righteous soul with the wicked
conversation of his neighbours. The abominations committed in Jerusalem
are to be in a special manner lamented, because they are in a
particular manner offensive to God.
2. The distinguishing care taken of them. Orders are given to find
those all out that are of such a pious public spirit: “Go through
the midst of the city in quest of them, and though they are ever so
much dispersed, and ever so closely hid from the fury of their
persecutors, yet see that you discover them, and set a mark upon
their foreheads,”
(1.) To signify that God owns them for his, and he will confess them
another day. A work of grace in the soul is to God a mark upon the
forehead, which he will acknowledge as his mark, and by which he
knows those that are his.
(2.) To give to them who are thus marked an assurance of God’s favour,
that they may know it themselves; and the comfort of knowing it will be
the most powerful support and cordial in calamitous times. Why should
we perplex ourselves about this temporal life if we know by the mark
that we have eternal life?
(3.) To be a direction to the destroyers whom to pass by, as the blood
upon the door-posts was an indication that that was an Israelite’s
house, and the first-born there must not be slain. Note, Those who keep
themselves pure in times of common iniquity God will keep safe in times
of common calamity. Those that distinguish themselves shall be
distinguished; those that cry for other men’s sins shall not need to
cry for their own afflictions, for they shall be either delivered from
them or comforted under them. God will set a mark upon his mourners,
will book their sighs and bottle their tears. The sealing of the
servants of God in their foreheads mentioned in
was the same token of the care God has of his own people with this
related here; only this was to secure them from being destroyed, that
from being seduced, which is equivalent.
| The Righteous Distinguished; The Prophet’s Intercession. | B. C. 593. |
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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.
In these verses we have,
I. A command given to the destroyers to do execution according to their
commission. They stood by the brazen altar, waiting for orders;
and orders are here given them to cut off and destroy all that were
either guilty of, or accessory to, the abominations of Jerusalem, and
that did not sigh and cry for them. Note, When God has
gathered his wheat into his garner nothing remains but to
burn up the chaff,
Matt. iii. 12.
1. They are ordered to destroy all,
(1.) Without exception. They must go through the city, and
smite; they must slay utterly, slay to destruction, give
them their death’s wound. They must make no distinction of age or sex,
but cut off old and young; neither the beauty of the virgins,
nor the innocency of the babes, shall secure them. This was fulfilled
in the death of multitudes by famine and pestilence, especially by the
sword of the Chaldeans, as far as the military execution went.
Sometimes even such bloody work as this has been God’s work. But what
an evil thing is sin, then, which provokes the God of infinite mercy to
such severity!
(2.) Without compassion: “Let not your eye spare, neither have you
pity
(v. 5);
you must not save any whom God has doomed to destruction, as Saul did
Agag and the Amalekites, for that is doing the work of God
deceitfully,
Jer. xlviii. 10.
None need to be more merciful than God is; and he had said
(ch. viii. 18),
My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity.” Note, Those
that live in sin, and hate to be reformed, will perish in sin, and
deserve not to be pitied; for they might easily have prevented the
ruin, and would not.
2. They are warned not to do the least hurt to those that were marked
for salvation: “Come not near any man upon whom is the mark; do
not so much as threaten or frighten any of them; it is promised them
that there shall no evil come nigh them, and therefore you must keep at
a distance from them.” The king of Babylon gave particular orders that
Jeremiah should be protected. Baruch and Ebed-melech were secured, and,
it is likely, others of Jeremiah’s friends, for his sake. God had
promised that it should go well with his remnant and they
should be well treated
(Jer. xv. 11);
and we have reason to think that none of the mourning praying remnant
fell by the sword of the Chaldeans, but that God found out some way or
other to secure them all, as, in the last destruction of Jerusalem by
the Romans, the Christians were all secured in a city called
Pella, and none of them perished with the unbelieving Jews.
Note, None of those shall be lost whom God has marked for life and
salvation; for the foundation of God stands sure.
3. They are directed to begin at the sanctuary
(v. 6),
that sanctuary which, in the chapter before, he had seen the horrid
profanation of; they must begin there because there the wickedness
began which provoked God to send these judgments. The debaucheries of
the priests were the poisoning of the springs, to which all the
corruption of the streams was owing. The wickedness of the sanctuary
was of all wickedness the most offensive to God, and therefore there
the slaughter must begin: “Begin there, to try if the people
will take warning by the judgments of God upon their priests, and will
repent and reform; begin there, that all the world may see and
know that the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous
God, and hates sin most in those that are nearest to him.” Note,
When judgments are abroad they commonly begin at the house of
God,
1 Pet. iv. 17.
You only have I known, and therefore I will punish you,
Amos iii. 2.
God’s temple is a sanctuary, a refuge and protection for penitent
sinners, but not for any that go on still in their trespasses;
neither the sacredness of the place nor the eminency of their place in
it will be their security. It should seem the destroyers made some
difficulty of putting men to death in the temple, but God bids them not
to hesitate at that, but
(v. 7),
Defile the house, and fill the courts with slain. They will not
be taken from the altar (as was appointed by the law,
but think to secure themselves by keeping hold of the horns of
it, like Joab, and therefore, like him, let them die there,
1 Kings ii. 30, 31.
There the blood of one of God’s prophets had been shed
and therefore let their blood be shed. Note, If the servants of God’s
house defile it with their idolatries, God will justly suffer the
enemies of it to defile it with their violences,
But these acts of necessary justice were really, whatever they were
ceremonially, rather a purification than a pollution of the sanctuary;
it was putting away evil from among them.
4. They are appointed to go forth into the city,
v. 6, 7.
Note, Wherever sin has gone before judgement will follow after; and,
though judgement begins at the house of God, yet it shall not
end there. The holy city shall be no more a protection to the wicked
people then the holy house was to the wicked priests.
II. Here is execution done accordingly. They observed their orders,
and,
1. They began at the elders, the ancient men that were before
the house, and slew them first, either those seventy ancients who
worshipped idols in their chambers
or those twenty-five who worshipped the sun between the porch and
the altar, who might more properly be said to be before the
house. Note, Ringleaders in sin may expect to be first met with by
the judgments of God; and the sins of those who are in the most
eminent and public stations call for the most exemplary punishments.
2. They proceeded to the common people: They went forth and slew in
the city; for, when the decree has gone forth, there shall be no
delay; if God begin, he will make an end.
III. Here is the prophet’s intercession for a mitigation of the
judgement, and a reprieve for some
(v. 8):
While they were slaying them, and I was left, I fell upon my
face. Observe here,
1. How sensible the prophet was of God’s mercy to him, in that he was
spared when so many round about him were cut off. Thousands fell on
his right hand, and on his left, and yet the destruction did
not come nigh him; only with his eyes did he behold the just reward
of the wicked,
Ps. xci. 7, 8.
He speaks as one that narrowly escaped the destruction, attributing it
to God’s goodness, not his own deserts. Note, The best saints must
acknowledge themselves indebted to sparing mercy that they are not
consumed. And when desolating judgments are abroad, and multitudes
fall by them, it ought to be accounted a great favor if we have our
lives given us for a prey; for we might justly have perished
with those that perished.
2. Observe how he improved this mercy; he looked upon it that
therefore he was left that he might stand in the gap to turn
away the wrath of God. Note, We must look upon it that for this reason
we are spared, that we may do good in our places, may do good by our
prayers. Ezekiel did not triumph in the slaughter he made, but his
flesh trembled for the fear of God, (as David’s,
he fell on his face, and cried, not in fear for himself
(he was one of those that were marked), but in compassion to his
fellow-creatures. Those that sigh and cry for the sins of sinners
cannot but sigh and cry for their miseries too; yet the day is coming
when all this concern will be entirely swallowed up in a full
satisfaction in this, that God is glorified; and those that now fall
on their faces, and cry, Ah! Lord God, will lift up their heads,
and sing, Hallelujah,
Rev. xix. 1, 3.
The prophet humbly expostulates with God: “Wilt thou destroy all the
residue of Israel, and shall there be none left but the few that
are marked? Shall the Israel of God be destroyed, utterly destroyed?
When there are but a few left shall those be cut off, who might have
been the seed of another generation? And will the God of Israel be
himself their destroyer? Wilt thou now destroy Israel, who wast wont to
protect and deliver Israel? Wilt thou so pour out thy fury upon
Jerusalem as by the total destruction of the city to ruin the whole
country too? Surely thou wilt not!” Note, Though we acknowledge that
God is righteous, yet we have leave to plead with him
concerning his judgments,
Jer. xii. 1.
IV. Here is God’s denial of the prophet’s request for a mitigation of
the judgement and his justification of himself in that denial,
1. Nothing could be said in extenuation of this sin. God was willing to
show mercy as the prophet could desire; he always is so. But here the
case will not admit of it; it is such that mercy cannot be granted
without wrong to justice; and it is not fit that one attribute of God
should be glorified at the expense of another. Is it any pleasure to
the Almighty that he should destroy, especially that he should destroy
Israel? By no means. But the truth is their crimes are so flagrant that
the reprieve of the sinners would be a connivance at the sin: “The
iniquity of the house of Judah and Israel is exceedingly great;
there is no suffering them to go on at this rate. The land is filled
with the innocent blood, and, when the city courts are appealed to
for the defence of injured innocency, the remedy is as bad as the
disease, for the city is full of perverseness, or wrestling
of judgement; and that which they support themselves with in this
iniquity is the same atheistical profane principle with which they
flattered themselves in their idolatry,
The Lord has forsaken the earth, and left it to us to do what we
will in it; he will not intermeddle in the affairs of it; and, whatever
wrong we do, he sees not; he either knows it not, or will not
take cognizance of it.” Now how can those expect benefit by the mercy
of God who thus bid defiance to his justice? No; nothing can be offered
by an advocate in excuse of the crimes while the criminal puts in such
a plea as this in his own vindication; and therefore.
2. Nothing can be done to mitigate the sentence
(v. 10):
“Whatever thou thinkest of it, as for me, my eye shall not spare,
neither will I have pity; I have borne with them as long as it was
fit that such impudent sinners should be borne with; and therefore now
I will recompense their way on their head.” Note, Sinners sink
and perish under the weight of their own sins; it is their own way,
which they deliberately chose rather than the way of God, and which
they obstinately persisted in, in contempt of the word of God, that is
recompensed on them. Great iniquities justify God in great
severities; nay, he is ready to justify himself, as he does here to the
prophet, for he will be clear when he judges.
V. Here is a return made of the writ of protection which was issued out
for the securing of those that mourned in Zion
(v. 11):
The man clothed with linen reported the matter, gave an account
of what he had done in pursuance of his commission; he had found out
all that mourned in secret for the sins of the land, and cried out
against them by a public testimony, and had marked them all in the
forehead. Lord, I have done as thou hast commanded me. We do not
find that those who were commissioned to destroy reported what
destruction they had made, but he who was appointed to protect reported
his matter; for it would be more pleasing both to God and to the
prophet to hear of those that were saved than of those that perished.
Or this report was made now because the thing was finished, whereas the
destroying work would be a work of time, and when it was brought to an
end then the report should be made. See how faithful Christ is to the
trust reposed in him. Is he commanded to secure eternal life to the
chosen remnant? He has done as was commanded him. Of all that thou
hast given me I have lost none.
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