member of Christendom’s religious organization? Or, Am I in sympathy with her and cooperating with her? If so, how will the “great tribulation” that is coming upon her affect me? Is there any way to escape sharing with her in that destructive “great tribulation”? Will even anyone who is in the midst of Christendom but who is not a sympathetic part of her be spared alive?

⁴⁷ What Jehovah showed to Ezekiel in vision after he inspected the temple in Jerusalem furnishes answers to these questions.

Chapter 9

Marking Foreheads of Those to Be Spared

1. What does Jehovah, while still at the temple, call out in Ezekiel’s hearing as a summons?

JEHOVAH and his prophet Ezekiel were still, in vision, at the defiled temple of Jerusalem when what Ezekiel next describes took place: “And he proceeded to call out in my ears with a loud voice, saying: ‘Have those giving their attention to the city come near, each one with his weapon in his hand for bringing ruin!’”—Ezekiel 9:1.

2. To whom did the expression “those giving their attention to the city” not apply, and what was their mission?

² Here “those giving their attention to the city” were not members of the city government of Jerusalem. So those whom Jehovah called did not include King Zedekiah, who was then governing Jerusalem and all the Kingdom of Judah in that year 612 B.C.E. Certainly King Zedekiah and his princes did not try to destroy Jerusalem. In fact, they appealed to Pharaoh of Egypt to come and help to save the city. Those