The following quote is taken from evilbible.com:
"Kill Men, Women, and Children
- "Then I heard the LORD say to the other men, "Follow him through
the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy;
have no pity! Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little
children. But do not touch anyone with the mark. Begin your task
right here at the Temple." So they began by killing the seventy
leaders. "Defile the Temple!" the LORD commanded.
"Fill its courtyards with the bodies of those you kill!
Go!" So they went throughout the city and did as they were told."
(Ezekiel 9:5-7 NLT)
These verses are part of a larger
vision that the prophet Ezekiel had. You
can read the entire chapter here:
In Ezekiel chapters 1-24, God sent
his message of doom against the nation of Judah; those who were not killed
during the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians were going to be taken into
captivity, and Jerusalem (including the First Temple, the one built by King
Solomon) would be destroyed. Ezekiel
received these messages only about 7 years before the Babylonian captivity
(which occurred circa 586 BCE). In
Ezekiel chapter 9, Ezekiel was given a vision of the destruction that would
occur when the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem.
The reason for the Babylonian
captivity is because the people of Judah had completely turned away from God,
choosing to worship idols instead, and had even defiled God's Temple by placing
idols inside of it and worshipping them there (Ezekiel 5-8). On top of that, the people were constantly
committing murder, foolishly thinking that God did not see or care what they
did (Ezekiel 5:5-7, 7:23, 8:17-18, 9:9-10).
"Therefore this is what the
Sovereign Lord
says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you
in the sight of the nations. Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have
never done before and will never do again" (Ezekiel 5:8-9, NIV).
The charge of
idolatry is a very grievous sin, which God does not take lightly (see Exodus 20:3-6, 23; 23:13, 23-24; 34:17;
Leviticus 19:4; 26:1; Deuteronomy 4:15-28; 5:7; 6:14-15; 8:19; 12:31; 17:2-7;
27:15; 29:17-18). God warned the
Israelites on several occasions that if they committed idolatry, it was a crime
that warranted the death penalty. The
Israelites' covenant with God demanded that they worship and serve him
only. They were not supposed to worship
other gods or fashion idols for themselves.
God had warned them that if they did these things, it would lead to
their destruction: "If
you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow
down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be
destroyed" (Deuteronomy 8:19, NIV).
Why is idolatry considered such a
serious crime? The severity of the
judgment, capital punishment, is due to the severity of the sin. God is the only God, the Lord and creator of
all the universe. When anyone bows down
and worships or pays tribute to a false god or idol, they are taking credit
away from God and giving it to something undeserving of that credit. "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my
praise to idols" (Isaiah 42:8, NIV).
The crime of idolatry was so serious that it was often referred to as
adultery against God (Ezekiel 6:9).
With all of this in mind, the many
verses in Ezekiel that describe the death of the people, including women and
children, are shocking and cause for grief.
The people of Israel and Judah had been given multiple warnings by God
through many prophets over the course of nearly 300 years, and they still did
not repent and turn to God for forgiveness.
If they had, they would have been spared, and all of the death and
destruction could have been avoided.
"If at any time I announce that a nation or
kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and
if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict
on it the disaster I had planned" (Jeremiah 18:7-8, NIV; see also Jonah
chapter 3).
As
in previous passages, it should be noted that God does not want anyone to
perish (2 Peter 3:9), and he takes no pleasure in the death of anyone (Ezekiel
18:32). However, there comes a time when
his patience runs out and he abandons those who have rejected him to their
fate. The conquest of Judah by Babylon
was such a time.
