And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem? (Ezekiel 9:8)
In vision Ezekiel saw Jerusalem reduced to a city of the dead. It seemed to him that he was standing alone in the midst of the slain. No notice is here made of any who, because of the protecting mark, were saved. Evidently they constituted a small minority.
Residue of Israel.
The ten tribes had already gone into captivity in 723/722 B.C. (2 Kings 17:6). A considerable group from the southern kingdom of Judah had been removed in 605 B.C., and especially in 597 B.C. (see p. 568). Ezekiel pleads for the remnant still left. The nature and magnitude of the sin justified the judgment.