A tav: cross sign Mark on their Forehead
– the Surprise of Ezekiel 9: 4-6

André H. Roosma
6 February 2012 (EN + NL)

In Ezekiel 9: 4-6, we read about a time that God has had enough of all sin and abominations happening in Jerusalem. He set out to destroy all the people who were engaged in such horrific activities. He sends out a couple of men (angels?) to carry this out.
But before those destructive messengers He sends a messenger who gets quite a different assignment. He has to care that all the people are rescued who also suffered under the evil that happened. Remarkable is how this man had to care for that, when we read the passage with an eye on the old script of those days.1 For his task, he is fitted with a writer’s ink-horn.

4 And YaHUaH said to him [the one with the ink horn], “Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a tav: cross mark (tav / cross mark) upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” 5 And to the others He said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and smite; your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity; 6 slay old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one upon whom is the tav: cross mark (tav / cross mark). And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the temple.

The name of the Hebrew letter tav (ת earlier: tav: cross mark) as a word is build up of two signs (תו); originally: tav: cross markwawu: tent pin – the tav sign itself and the wav – basically: the pin or stick with a sharp point used to draw or engrave such signs in clay or in a rock (Yirme-Yahu (Jeremiah) 17: 1 shows that one of the utensils used was an iron pin with a sharp stone (diamond?) tip). So, this word stands for cross mark. In addition, the word tav stands literally also for ‘(cross) mark of attachment, belonging and security’ (the wawu: tent pin - wav as tent pin stood symbolically for attachment, belonging, security and safety).

This tav (written in full as תו or tav: cross markwawu: tent pin) as a sign of God is Biblically very significant. The well known dictionary by Brown, Driver & Briggs gives for tav: ‘mark (as a sign of exemption from judgment)’!

We encounter it in Job 31: 35 (a text which is also a lot richer in the (Old) Hebrew original then in any translation); and in the above mentioned passage.

Thus we see that the old Biblical script and this history in Ezekiel contains already a clear reference to God’s redemptive work at Calvary!

Hallelu YaH !


1 The glorious Name of God I presented here - as well as I could - from the oldest Hebrew original, instead of replacing this grand personal Name of The Most High by a common word, such as ‘Lord’. For more background information on this see:
André H. Roosma, ‘The wonderful and lovely Name of the God Who was there, Who is there, and Who will be there.pdf document, extensive Accede! / Hallelu-YaH! study, July 2009.

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