- 9:1 "those who have charge over the city" - literally, "oversight",
"inspection". Modern translations have "executioners of the city",
which interprets "oversight over the city" as "oversight over
killing those in the city" based on the following events. But that is
not what it says.
- 9:2 "weapon of slaughter" - literally "apparatus for smiting", i.e.
not necessarily a sword. The Angel of the Lord "smote"
185000 Assyrians
2 Kings 19:35,
and Ananias and Saphira were similarly smitten
Acts 5:5.
"stood by the bronze altar" - right in front of the sun worshippers
in front of the temple. The angels were invisible to this world,
but the eyes of Ezekiel were opened, as with Elisha
2 Kings 6:17
and Jacob
Genesis 32:2.
- 9:3 "the Glory of the Lord rose from above the Cherubim" - it
now departs from the Ark, and people start dying - like but unlike
"Raiders of the Lost Ark".
- 9:4 "mark on the forehead" - "tav", the last letter in the
hebrew alphabet.
At the time of Ezekiel, Hebrew script was still what
we now call "paleo Hebrew". The modern letter forms actually come from
the Persian empire.
“Do not harm the land or sea or trees until we have sealed the
foreheads of the servants of our God.”
Revelation 7:3
"groaning over all the abominations" -
2 Peter 2:7
- 9:6 "slaughter" - smite with deadly intent
- 9:7 "began killing throught the city" - in 7:15, they are to die by
famine, plague and sword. So I'm imagining people are smitten
by plague that haven't already died of famine, and then the
Chaldeans will finish the job.
The Spanish could not have so easily conquered 12 million in
South America - but most of them died of plaque first. God
is helping the Chaldeans out.
- 9:9 "The LORD has forsaken the land; the LORD does not see."
The refrain from
8:12
- 9:10 "bring their deeds on their own heads" - this is what they had
been doing to the poor of the land, and now they get a taste of their
own medicine.
- 9:11 "I have done as You commanded" - the best thing any of us can say.