Ezek 9.1-11 describes the executioners (overseers, agents of God) being called to bring judgment on Jerusalem and begins to describe the departure of the Shekinah and throne, which will continue into Ezek 10 and 11.
v 1…Then he cried out (Yehovah) in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, “Draw near, O executioners (those appointed to execute a task) of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand (these are heavenly overseers of the city).”
v 2…And behold, six men (angels appearing as men) came from the direction of the upper gate (Shaar Ha Elyon) which faces north (from where the idolaters were seen and from where Babylon would come), each with his shattering weapon in his hand; and among them was a certain man clothed in linen (he stood in relation to them as the high priest was to the Levites, the head of the others. He is not equal to God and described as the appearance of Yehovah in Ezek 1 or Dan 10, or as Yeshua in Rev 1) with a writing case at his loins (where scribes carried their writing materials). And they went in (the seven) and stood beside the bronze altar (stationed themselves by the altar waiting for their orders).
v 3…Then the glory (kivod) of the God of Israel went up from the cherub on which it had been (over the Ark as a sign that his presence is being removed from the Temple), to the threshold of the Temple (of the Holy of Holies, nearer to the altar where the seven were waiting). And he called to the man clothed in linen at whose loins was the writing case (he was the principal being among them).
v 4…And the Lord (Yehovah) said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark (Hebrew “tav” and based on the form the Israelites marked their houses with the blood in Egypt) on the forehead (seat of the intellect and reason-Rev 14.1) of the men who sigh (inwardly) and groan (outwardly) over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst (to preserve them, like with the blood of the lamb in Egypt).”
v 5…But to the others (the other six) he said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him (the man in linen with the writing case) and strike; do not let your eye have pity, and do not spare (don’t “pass over” them).
v 6…Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women, do not touch any man on whom is the mark; and you shall start from my sanctuary (“mikdash” or house of kedusha-1 Pet 4.17; Rev 8.1; Luke 12.49).” So they started with the elders (they could have stopped the idolatry) who were before the Temple.
v 7…And he (Yehovah) said to them, “Defile the Temple and fill the courts (azarot) with the slain. Go out !” Thus they went out and struck down the people of the city.
v 8…Then it came about as they were striking and I alone was left (alone in the court, the only one left alive), that I fell on my face and cried out saying, “Alas, Lord (Adonai) God (Yehovah)! Art thou destroying the whole remnant of Israel (Judah and Benjamin in particular) by pouring out thy wrath upon Jerusalem?”
v 9…Then he said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel (not lost after Assyria) and Judah is very, very great and the land is filled with blood (innocent blood, capital crimes), and the city is full of perversion (of justice); for they say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land and the Lord does not see!’
v 10…But as for me, my eye will have no pity nor shall I spare, but I shall bring their conduct upon their heads.”
v 11…Then behold, the man clothed in linen at whose loins was the writing case (to mark those who sigh and groan) reported, saying, “I have done just as thou hast commanded me (the righteous were preserved-same as in John 17.4 because Yeshua came to preserve the righteous also).”
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