1And He called out in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, “Let the punishers of the city draw near, each with his weapon of destruction in his hand.”

2And look, six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his battle-axe in his hand. And one man in their midst was clothed with linen and had a writer’s ink-horn at his side. And they came in and stood beside the bronze altar.

3And the esteem of the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl went up from the keruḇ, where it had been, to the threshold of the House. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s ink-horn at his side,

4and יהוה said to him, “Pass on into the midst of the city, into the midst of Yerushalayim, and you shall put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

5And to the others He said in my hearing, “Pass on into the city after him and smite, do not let your eye pardon nor spare.

6“Slay to destruction old, young men, maidens and children and women, but do not come near anyone upon whom is the mark, and begin at My set-apart place.” So they began with the elders who were in front of the House.

7And He said to them, “Defile the House, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” And they went out and smote in the city.

8And as they were smiting them it came to be that I alone was left. And I fell on my face and cried out, and said, “Ah, Master יהוה! Are You destroying all the remnant of Yisra’ĕl in pouring out Your wrath on Yerushalayim?”

9And He said to me, “The crookedness of the house of Yisra’ĕl and Yehuḏah is exceedingly great, and the land is filled with bloodshed, and the city filled with that which is warped. For they say, ‘יהוה has forsaken the land, and יהוה is not seeing!’

10“But as for Me, My eye shall not pardon, nor would I spare, I shall recompense their deeds on their own head.”

11And see, the man clothed with linen, who had the ink-horn at his side, reported back and said, “I have done as You commanded me.”