Ezekiel 9:2 - Exposition

Behold, six men , etc. The man clothed with linen brings the number up to the sacred number seven, as in Zechariah 4:10 ; Revelation 1:16 , Revelation 1:20 ; Revelation 15:6 . He is over them rather than among them, and answers to the scribe who appears so frequently in Assyrian sculptures, as the secretary who counts the prisoners that have been taken in battle. They come from the north, the region from which the vision of Ezekiel 1:4 had come, in which, in the nearer vision of Ezekiel 8:4 , the prophet had seen the same glorious presence. They appear, i.e; as issuing from the Divine presence to do their work of judgment. Possibly. as in Jeremiah 1:1-19 ; there may be an allusive reference to the fact that the Chaldeans, as the actual instruments of their judgment, came from the same region. The gate in question was built by Jotham ( 2 Kings 15:35 ). The captain of the band is arrayed in the "white linen" of the hosts of heaven and of the priests on earth ( ποδήρης in the LXX .; comp. Le Jeremiah 6:10 ; Jeremiah 16:4 ; Ezekiel 44:17 ; Daniel 10:5 ; Daniel 12:6 ). A writer's inkhorn. Through all the changes of Eastern life this has been the outward sign of the scribe's office. Here it is obviously connected with the oft-recurring thought of the books of life and death in the chancery of heaven ( Exodus 32:32 ; Psalms 69:28 ; Psalms 139:16 ; Isaiah 4:3 ; Daniel 41:1; Philippians 4:3 ). It was to be the work of this scribe ( Jeremiah 1:4 ) to mark such as were for death to death, such as were for life to life. The LXX ; misunderstanding the Hebrew, or following a different text, gives, not "a writer's inkhorn," but "a girdle of sapphire." With all the precision of one who knew every inch of the temple courts, the priest-prophet sees the visitants take their station beside the brazen altar, probably, as they came from the north, on the north side of it.