John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 9:7

"And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and smote in the city." — Ezekiel 9:7 (ASV)

Here God repeats what He had previously touched upon briefly and obscurely: namely, that the Jews trusted in vain in the visible temple, because He had already ceased to dwell there, as we will afterwards see that He had departed. He had promised that His perpetual dwelling would be there (Psalms 132:14), but that promise is not contradicted by the temporary abandonment of that dwelling place.

Now therefore He adds this sentence, when He orders the Chaldeans to pollute the temple itself. But it was already polluted, someone will say. I confess it; but this refers to the common perception of the people. For although the Jews had defiled the sanctuary of God with their wickedness, they still boasted that His worship and His sacred name remained there.

Now therefore He speaks of another kind of pollution: namely, that the Chaldeans would fill all the area with the slain. If a human corpse or even a dog were seen in the sanctuary, this was an intolerable pollution; all would cry out that it was portentous. But as often as they entered the temple, although they dragged their crimes into God’s presence (for they went there polluted with blood, robbery, fraud, perjuries, and a whole heap of guilt), they still considered all these pollutions as nothing.

God therefore here indirectly derides their sloth, when He says that they boasted of the sanctity of the temple in vain.

This is because they would eventually see it filled with corpses, and then would truly acknowledge that the temple was no longer sacred. Now therefore we understand the intention of the Holy Spirit.

The Prophet adds, that they had gone forth, and caused a slaughter in the city. Here again the Prophet shows that the Chaldeans would be ready to strike the Jews with terror as soon as God commanded them to destroy the city and cut off the inhabitants.

Perhaps the city had not yet been besieged—and that is probable—for the Jews considered Ezekiel’s threats to be fictitious. For this reason he (Ezekiel) says that the Chaldeans appeared to him so that they might hear or receive God’s commandment. Then he says that they had returned from the slaughter, to prove their obedience to God.

In short, he shows that God’s threats would not be in vain, because as soon as the right time arrived, the army of the Chaldeans would be ready for obedience.