Ezekiel 9 - Bible Study, Explanation, and Application
Ezekiel 9 Bible Study
TIMELINE:
We are given a specific date for the vision seen by Ezekiel in chapter 9, the 6th year, in the 6th month. This likely refers to the 6th year of the exile of King Jehoiachin, which dates this chapter to approximately 591 BC, a year after Ezekiel was called as a prophet.
Below is a list of kings of Judah and dates for their reign:
Amon (642-640 BC)
Josiah (640-609 BC)
Jehoahaz (also known as Shallum, 609 BC)
Jehoiakim (initially known as Eliakim, 609-598 BC)
Jehoiachin (also known as Jeconiah or Coniah, 598-597 BC)
Zedekiah (His reign ended when Babylon conquered Judah, (597-586 BC)
WHAT WE STUDIED PREVIOUSLY
Ezekiel 1 – Ezekiel has a vision of 4 living creatures, 4 wheels, and God’s throne.
Ezekiel 2 – God commissions Ezekiel to be a prophet to his rebellious countrymen.
Ezekiel 3 – The end of the heavenly vision. Ezekiel eats the scroll of God’s words, and God calls him to be a watchman over the people of Judah.
Ezekiel 4 – Ezekiel prophesies with an object lesson in the street by laying on his side for 430 days, eating rations of bread, and creating a siege scene with a brick that represents Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 5 – After the 430 days, Ezekiel cut off his hair divided it up into 3 parts and used it as a symbol for what would happen to the people of Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 6 – Ezekiel prophesies against the idol worshipers in Judah, telling them their bodies will be thrown at the feet of their powerless gods.
Ezekiel 7 – The Lord announces that the day of Judah’s judgement and doom is near.
Ezekiel 8 – Ezekiel saw a vision of the Temple in Jerusalem. God guided him through the courts and gates of the Temple and showed him the secret idolatries that filled God’s house.
OUTLINE:
THE 6 EXECUTIONERS (9:1-11):
Ezekiel’s vision continues…
After God showed Ezekiel all the abominations and idolatry in the Temple, God called out for the executioners.
Ezekiel saw 6 men appear from the upper gate. Each man had a “weapon for slaughter” in his hand.
Accompanying them was a man dressed in linen with a writing case at his waist.
God instructed the man to go through the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of all the people who hated and opposed the idolatry that permeated the city.
When this was done, the executioners were given orders to kill everyone in the city who didn’t have the mark on their foreheads. They were to spare no one and show no pity, starting with the elders who were worshipping false gods in the Temple.
They were to leave the bodies in the Temple to defile the sanctuary.
Ezekiel was very troubled by what he saw, and he asked the Lord if He was going to destroy the entire nation.
God said, “The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see.’ As for me, my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; I will bring their deeds upon their heads” (9:9-10).
