Ezekiel 9:8

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?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) I was left.—The words imply left alone. The prophet had just before seen the courts of the sanctuary thronged with idolaters in the full glory of their heaven-defying sin. Now it is a city of the dead, and he is left standing alone in the midst of the dead. He falls upon his face in consternation, and pleads that “the residue of Israel” may not be utterly destroyed. The sternness of the Divine answer leaves no room for hope of any mitigation of the judgment. No mention is made here of those who were to be saved; they were so few among the mass as to have no effect upon the general impression of the vision. Yet they are not forgotten; and to show that they are not, the man in linen is represented in the next verse (11) as reporting that he had executed the command given him.

Benson Commentary

Ezekiel 9:8. And while they were slaying, and I was left — Having, as it is to be supposed, the mark of preservation set upon his forehead by the protecting angel. He seems to speak as if he thought he alone was preserved amidst the common destruction, although, certainly, all those who had a mark set upon them were preserved as well as he. I fell upon my face and cried, &c. — I appeared to myself in my vision to do so, namely, to fall down in a posture of supplication, to deprecate God’s anger, (see Numbers 12:5; and Numbers 16:4; Numbers 16:22; Numbers 16:45,) and to beseech him not to make an utter end of those small remains that were left of the Jewish nation, Jerusalem being almost the only place which was not in the enemy’s power.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:5-11 The slaughter must begin at the sanctuary, that all may see and know that the Lord hates sin most in those nearest to him. He who was appointed to protect, reported the matter. Christ is faithful to the trust reposed in him. Is he commanded by his Father to secure eternal life to the chosen remnant? He says, Of all that thou hast given me, I have lost none. If others perish, and we are saved, we must ascribe the difference wholly to the mercy of our God, for we too have deserved wrath. Let us still continue to plead in behalf of others. But where the Lord shows no mercy he does no injustice; he only recompenses men's ways.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Left - The prophet was left alone, all who had been around him were slain.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. I was left—literally, "there was left I." So universal seemed the slaughter that Ezekiel thought himself the only one left [Calvin]. He was the only one left of the priests "in the sanctuary."

fell upon my face—to intercede for his countrymen (so Nu 16:22).

all the residue—a plea drawn from God's covenant promise to save the elect remnant.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

And it came to pass: this is a most usual transition, and Scripture phrase.

While; there was some space of time taken up in the execution.

They were slaying; the six slaughtermen; not bodily and actually, but visionally, and in prophetic representation.

Slaying them; those about the sanctuary, and in the city.

I was left; either survived the slaughter, or left alone, now both the sealer and the slayers were gone; or alone sealed of all the priests, the rest being exposed to destruction.

I fell on my face, in most humble and earnest manner addressing to God, as one that would entreat mercy for a ruined state; and

cried, importunately prayed; and the prayer follows.

Ah! an expression of the greatest compounded affection of pity, desire, and zeal for the afflicted; and what follows is a complex of arguments for pity and sparing mercy; from God himself, from his peculiar hand in this, from his people, the remnant of them, and from the sad and mournful state Jerusalem was already in. Must all Israel drink thus of the cup of thine indignation?

The residue of Israel; so called, because many were already in captivity with Jeconiah, and had been so about six or seven years; or else in respect to the electing love of God, who ever reserved a remnant to himself.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And it came to pass, while they were slaying them,.... That were in the city:

and I was left; in the temple; and the only one that was left there, the rest were slain; for there were none marked in the temple, only in the city, Ezekiel 9:4;

that I fell upon my face; as a supplicant, with great humility:

and cried, and said; being greatly distressed with this awful providence:

ah, Lord God! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel; the ten tribes had been carried captive before; there only remained the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and these were now threatened with an utter destruction:

in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem? shown in the destruction of men, both in the city and temple, by famine, pestilence, and sword.

Geneva Study Bible

And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, {i} Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy the whole remnant of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?

(i) This declares that the servants of God have a compassion when they see his judgments executed.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Ezekiel 9:8-10. Intercession of the Prophet

and I was left] The executioners passed out of the inner court, leaving only dead behind them, and the prophet was left alone (Isaiah 49:21. The anomalous form is to be read impf.). The terrible outbreak of the Divine wrath seemed to forebode the extinction of all the remnant of Israel, and the prophet fell on his face, appealing to the Lord on their behalf. The “residue” suggests the many calamities that had already befallen the people, wearing them down to only a few men (Isaiah 41:14, comp. the prophet’s own figure of the half-burnt brand, ch. 15), and the threat of a fire going out upon all the house of Israel seemed about to be realized (ch. Ezekiel 5:4). The prophet passes from one state of feeling to another. Sometimes he is in sympathy with the divine resentment, and is himself full of fury against the sinful people (ch. Ezekiel 3:14), and of a scorn that rejoices at their coming chastisements (ch. Ezekiel 6:11), but when the judgments of God are abroad before his eyes he is appalled at their severity, and his pity for men overcomes his religious zeal (ch. Ezekiel 11:13).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - I fell upon my face, etc. The ministers of vengeance and the prophet were left in the courts of the temple alone. His human, national sympathies led him, as they led Moses (Numbers 11:2; Numbers 14:19) and St. Paul (Romans 9:1-3) to undertake the work of intercession. With the words which had been the keynote of Isaiah's prophecies, probably present to his thoughts (Isaiah 37:32, et al.), he asks whether Jehovah will indeed destroy all that remnant of Israel (comp. Ezekiel 11:13) who might be as the germ of hope for the future. Ezekiel 9:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Intercession of the Prophet, and the Answer of the Lord

Ezekiel 9:8. And it came to pass when they smote and I remained, I fell upon my face, and carried, and said: Alas! Lord Jehovah, wilt Thou destroy all the remnant of Israel, by pouring out Thy wrath upon Jerusalem? Ezekiel 9:9. And He said to me: The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is immeasurably great, and the land is full of blood-guiltiness, and the city full of perversion; for they say Jehovah hath forsaken the land, and Jehovah seeth not. Ezekiel 9:10. So also shall my eye not look with pity, and I will not spare; I will give their way upon their head. Ezekiel 9:11. And, behold, the man clothed in white linen, who had the writing materials on his hip, brought answer, and said: I have done as thou hast commanded me. - The Chetib נאשׁאר is an incongruous form, composed of participle and imperfect fused into one, and is evidently a copyist's error. It is not to be altered into אשּׁאר, however (the 1st pers. imperf. Niph.), but to be read as a participle נשׁאר, and taken with כּהכּותם as a continuation of the circumstantial clause. For the words do not mean that Ezekiel alone was left, but that when the angels smote and he was left, i.e., was spared, was not smitten with the rest, he fell on his face, to entreat the Lord for mercy. These words and the prophet's intercession both apparently presuppose that among the inhabitants of Jerusalem there was no one found who was marked with the sign of the cross, and therefore could be spared. But this is by no means to be regarded as established. For, in the first place, it is not stated that all had been smitten by the angels; and, secondly, the intercession of the prophet simply assumes that, in comparison with the multitude of the slain, the number of those who were marked with the sign of the cross and spared was so small that it escaped the prophet's eye, and he was afraid that they might all be slain without exception, and the whole of the remnant of the covenant nation be destroyed. The שׁארית of Israel and Judah is the covenant nation in its existing state, when it had been so reduced by the previous judgments of God, that out of the whole of what was once so numerous a people, only a small portion remained in the land. Although God has previously promised that a remnant shall be preserved (Ezekiel 5:3-4), He does not renew this promise to the prophet, but begins by holding up the greatness of the iniquity of Israel, which admits of no sparing, but calls for the most merciless punishment, to show him that, according to the strict demand of justice, the whole nation has deserved destruction. מטּה (Ezekiel 9:9) is not equivalent to מוהט, oppression (Isaiah 58:9), but signifies perversion of justice; although משׁפּט is not mentioned, since this is also omitted in Exodus 23:2, where הטּה occurs in the same sense. For Ezekiel 9:9, vid., Ezekiel 8:12. For נתתּי 'דּרכּם בר (Ezekiel 9:10 and Ezekiel 11:21-22, 31), vid., 1 Kings 8:32. While God is conversing with the prophet, the seven angels have performed their work; and in Ezekiel 9:11 their leader returns to Jehovah with the announcement that His orders have been executed. He does this, not in his own name only, but in that of all the rest. The first act of the judgment is thus shown to the prophet in a figurative representation. The second act follows in the next chapter.