1He also cried out in my ears with a loud voice, saying, "Bring near those who have charge over the city, each man with his destroying weapon in his hand."
2Look, six men came from the way of the upper gate, which faces north, and each man had a slaughter weapon in his hand. Among them was one man dressed in linen, with a writer's inkhorn at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.
3The glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub where it had been, to the doorway of the house. And he called to the man dressed in linen, who had the writer's inkhorn at his side.
4The LORD said to him, "Go through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem. Put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the disgusting things that are done in it."
5And to the others he said, while I listened, "Go after him through the city, and strike. Do not let your eye spare, and do not have pity."
6"Kill them all, old and young, both girls and little children and women. But do not come near anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary." So they began with the old men who were in front of the house.
7And he said to them, "Make the house unclean, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out." So they went out and killed in the city.
8While they were killing them, and I was left alone, I fell on my face and cried out, "Ah, Lord GOD, will you destroy all who are left of Israel as you pour out your fury on Jerusalem?"
9Then he said to me, "The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is very great. The land is full of blood, and the city is full of twisted ways. For they say, 'The LORD has left the earth, and the LORD does not see.'"
10"And as for me also, my eye will not spare, and I will not have pity. I will bring their way back on their own heads."
11And look, the man dressed in linen, who had the inkhorn at his side, reported the matter, saying, "I have done as you commanded me."