1And He cries [with] a loud voice in my ears, saying, “Inspectors of the city have drawn near, and each [with] his destroying weapon in his hand.”

2And behold, six men are coming from the way of the upper gate, that is facing the north, and each [with] his slaughter-weapon in his hand, and one man in their midst is clothed with linen, and a scribe’s inkhorn at his loins, and they come in, and stand near the bronze altar.

3And the glory of the God of Israel has gone up from off the cherub, on which it has been, to the threshold of the house.

4And He calls to the man who is clothed with linen, who has the scribe’s inkhorn at his loins, and YHWH says to him, “Pass on into the midst of the city, into the midst of Jerusalem, and you have made a mark on the foreheads of the men who are sighing and who are groaning for all the abominations that are done in its midst.”

5And to the others he said in my ears, “Pass on into the city after him, and strike; your eye does not pity, nor do you spare;

6aged, young man, and virgin, and infant, and women, you slay—to destruction; and against any man on whom [is] the mark you do not go near, and you begin from My sanctuary.”

7And they begin among the aged men who [are] before the house, and He says to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the wounded, go forth.” And they have gone forth and have struck in the city.

8And it comes to pass, as they are striking, and I am left—that I fall on my face, and cry, and say, “Aah! Lord YHWH, are You destroying all the remnant of Israel, in Your pouring out Your wrath on Jerusalem?”

9And He says to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah [is] very, very great, and the land is full of blood, and the city has been full of perverseness, for they have said: YHWH has forsaken the land, and YHWH is not seeing.

10And I also, My eye does not pity, nor do I spare; I have put their way on their own head.”

11And behold, the man clothed with linen, at whose loins [is] the inkhorn, is bringing back word, saying, “I have done as You have commanded me.”