Ezekiel 9:2

Six men. These executioners of vengeance are pictured as human in form. In primary application they represent the Babylonians, who were to execute the divine sentence upon the city. In secondary application they portend the agencies of judgments which, at the close of time, will execute sentence, first upon those who have professed to be the spiritual guardians of the people, and later upon the wicked in general.

Higher gate. Since the courts of the Temple were built in stages, the inner court was the higher. “Toward the north” designates the gate as the one where the prophet had been shown the idolatries (ch. 8:5).

One man among them. This man was one of the six bearing the slaughtering weapons, and not a seventh, as some interpreters assert (see 3T 266, 267). He was “clothed with linen,” the ordinary priestly garment, and the special garment of the high priest at the ceremonies of the great Day of Atonement (Lev. 16).

Inkhorn. Heb. qeseth, a word occurring only here, probably derived from the Egyptian gsty, “the palette of a writer,” hence a case containing pens, knife, and ink. The LXX, perhaps following a different text, reads “a girdle of sapphire” instead of “inkhorn.” But the Hebrew seems to be the preferable reading.