The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel
Ezekiel 39
Chapter XXXIX · Vol. III, pp. 1369–1370
1 God's judgment upon Gog. 8 Israel's victory. 11 Gog's burial in Hamon-gog. 17 The feast of the fowls. 23 Israel, having been plagued for their sins, shall be gathered again with eternal favour.
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against aGog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, bI am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
a ch.38.2,&c.
b ch.38.23. Re.18.8. Ps.76.7. Job 40.2,12. Na.1.6. Ps.110.5,6. Re.6.15,17.
2 And cI will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part1 of thee,2 and3 will cause thee to come up4 from 5the north parts,6 and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
c See ch.38.4. Zec.14.3,5,12. Re.16.12,14,16.
1 Sixth part. 'Strike thee with six plagues. Margin.—Why six plagues? Probably in allusion to the six combined powers—Gog, Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Gomer, and Togarmah (ch.38.2,5,6), to which correspond six forms of military discomfiture—the bow smitten from the left hand; the arrows falling from the right; the fall of the combined army on the mountains; their deliverance to ravenous birds; to the beasts of the field; and finally, the fire upon Magog and the careless dwellers in the isles. See ver. 2, 4, 6.—C.
2 Or, strike thee with six plagues, or draw thee back with an hook of six teeth, as ch.38.22.
3 Or, after I have caused and have brought, ch.38.4-16.
4 Will cause thee to come up. See ch.38.16.—C.
5 Heb. the sides of the north.
6 North parts. See ch.38.15.—C.
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand,7 and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
7 Ps.76.3. Ho.1.5,6. De.28.35,42. ver.4: deprive thee of all power to fight.
4 Thoud shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort,8 and to the beasts of the field, to be devoured.9
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field;1 for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
1 Heb. the face of the field, ch.29.5; 32.4; 38.21.
6 And I will send ea fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly2 in the gisles;3 and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 Soh will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; iand I will not let them pollute my holy name any more; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
h ver.21,22; ch.38.16,23. Is.26.9,11. Ho.3.5. Ps.58.10,11; 64.9,10; 33.18.
i ch.36.25-31. Je.32.39,40, with Le.18.21. ch.20.12. Ex.20.7.
8 Behold, jit is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is kthe day lwhereof I have spoken.
j Ps.12.5. Re.18.2. Is.33.10-12. ch.7.2-14. Re.16.17; xix.xx.
k Ps.37.13. 1 Sa.26.10.
l See ch.38.17; xix.xx.
9 And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall ngo forth, and shall oset on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the 4hand-staves and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire5 seven years:6
* The language is figurative. It is intended to show the greatness of the overthrow of the enemies of God's people; the enormous amount of arms and armour they would leave on the battle-field, and the great length of time it would require to consume the spoil—'seven years,' a symbolical figure for a long period.—P.
n Ps.111.2,3; 64.9. Is.66.24. Mal.1.5.
o ver.10. Ps.46.9.
4 Or, javelins.
5 Or, make a fire of them, i.e. use them for fuel.
6 See note * in first column.
10 So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire:7 and pthey shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.
7 When the little amount of fire required in eastern cities is considered (for this statement is confined to the cities), this long-continued burning of the weapons of war may, instead of a figure, be a literal description of fact.—C.
p Is.14.2; 33.1. Re.13.10; 18.6. Mat.7.2. Ja.2.13. Is.33.1. Ob.18-21. Mi.5.8.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel,8 the valley of the passengers on the east9 of qthe sea; and it shall stop the noses1 of the passengers;2 and there shall they bury Gog, and all his multitude; and they shall call it the valley of Hamon-gog.3
8 How remarkably expressive is the language! Gog expected to obtain possession of Palestine as an easy conquest; all that he would gain in it would be a grave. The whole description is figurative.—P.
9 To the east of the Lake of Tiberias or Gennesareth, called also in the New Testament the Sea of Galilee.—C.
q ch.47.18. Nu.34.11. Jn.6.1. Lu.5.1.
1 Or, mouths.
2 Travelling to or from Syria, ver.14,15.
3 That is, The multitude of Gog.
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may rcleanse the land.
r ver.14,16. De.21.23. Nu.19.13,16.
13 Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown,4 the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
4 Or, day of renown, Ps.126.2,3. ver.21,22; ch.28.22. Is.26.9. Ps.85.10,11.
14 And they shall ssever out men of continual employment,5 passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
5 Heb. men of continuance. The touch of a grave, or bone of a dead person, defiled deeply, Nu.xix.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man's bone, then shall he set6 up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog.7
6 Heb. build, Le.11.44. Lu.11.44. Lest any should touch it unwarily.
7 When a corpse remained unburied, the land, according to the ceremonial law, was defiled by it. Should any one, therefore, by accident find a bone unburied, it was his duty to give notice to the proper authorities. He could not himself touch it without incurring ceremonial pollution.—P.
16 And also the name of the city8 shall be Hamonah.9 Thus shall they cleanse the land.
8 The new triumphal city built in the valley of the passengers, in the road of now peaceful commerce, and of that religious intercourse that will now subsist between Jerusalem and the Gentile nations of the East.—C.
9 That is, The multitude.
17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD, tSpeak unto every feathered 1fowl, and to every beast of the field, uAssemble yourselves, and come, gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice2 that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.
18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams,v of lambs, and of goats,3 of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken,4 of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
4 Or, satiated, Ca.5.1. Hag.1.6. Je.31.14,25. 1 Co.11.21.
20 Thus ye shall be xfilled at my table with horses and chariots,5 with mighty men, and with all men of war,6 saith the Lord GOD.
21 Andy I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment, that I have executed, and my hand that I have zlaid upon them.
23 Andb the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore chid I my face from them, and gave them into the dhand of their enemies; so fell they all by the sword.7
24 Accordinge to their uncleanness, and according to their transgressions, have I done unto them, and hid my face from them.
e Is.1.19,20; 3.11. Je.2.19,20; 4.18; 5.25. Da.9.4-16. Is.i.-iii. v. ix. lix. Je.ii.-xxv. ch.ii.-xxiv. Ho.i.-xiii. 2 Ki.17.7-23, &c.
25 Therefore, thus saith the Lord GOD, Nowg will I bring again8 the captivity of Jacob, and have hmercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;9
g ch.34.13; 36.10,24; 37.11,12,21. Is.56.8; 27.12,13. Je.3.18; 23.3; 30.3,18; 31.8. Ro.11.15,25,26,32.
8 Now will I bring again, &c. Not after the destruction of Gog and his host; for the restoration was accomplished previously, and the prosperity of the restored people was one great incentive to his invasion (see ch. 38. 8, 11, 12); but 'after that they have borne their shame' (ver. 26)—the shame of their sins in their own land, and the shame of their captivity and degradation among the Gentiles.—C.
h Ho.1.11.
9 ch.36.5,6,21-23; 38.19. Joel 2.18. Na.1.2. Zec.1.14; 8.2; i.e. ready to vindicate my perfections and people.
26 Afteri that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses, whereby they have trespassed against me, jwhen they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.
i Ps.99.8. Da.9.16. Je.3.24,25. ch.16.36,37; 30.11.
j De.28.47,48; 32.14,15. 1 Ki.4.25. Mi.4.5.
27 When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and kam sanctified in them in the sight of many nations;
28 Thenl shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them1 to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have leftn none of them any more there.
29 Neithero will I hide my face any more from them: for I have ppoured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.
o ch.37.27,28. Is.54.8-10. ver.24,25.
p ch.11.19; 36.27. Joel 2.28. Is.59.20,21; 44.3,4. Zec.12.10. Ac.2.17. 1 Jn.3.24. Ro.11.26,27.
Notes
Ver. 9. The destruction of Gog and his army will take place (1) by international quarrels; (2) by pestilence; (3) by storms, both natural and miraculous, ch. 38. 21, 22. Modern times have furnished an example of the almost complete annihilation of the noblest army the world ever saw, within even a briefer space than that assigned for the destruction of Gog and his host. The retreat of Napoleon from Moscow should furnish a lesson to all ambitious invaders, and teach the nations to tremble at that great but often forgotten truth—'The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.' C.
Ver. 17. This most terrible, because most extensive, of all the judgments of God inflicted since the great flood. is called 'a sacrifice,' which the Most High offers to his justice, and in assertion of his mercy—an offering to justice, because Gog was an unprovoked invader, a covetous robber—an assertion of mercy wrought for the deliverance of suffering and oppressed humanity. See ch. 38. 10-13. C.
Reflections.—No weapon formed against Zion can prosper. The most mighty armies are easily crushed by an angry God, and must be ruined, rather than his word should fail. They who expect wealth with the wicked must take their punishment with them; and they who invade other men's rights justly lose their own. They who know God's name will never dare to profane it. And his enemies must know at last what a great God and Saviour he is to all people, and what destruction comes to the wicked. No injury done to us should hinder our humanity, even to the dead. And vile corpses ought to render sin, the cause of death, abominable. General mercies should animate to general reformation: and every one ought to be hearty and persevering in them. After all our conquests on earth, there is always great need of purification: and to advance God's glory is Israel's great renown. How humbling it is to nature when because of judgments on sin men become degraded like beasts! But wise are all his dispensations: his judgments on the wicked are according to justice, and an encouragement to the faith and hope of the people. True penitents are willing to bear their shame, and wonder at the mercy mingled with their sufferings. And when we return to God, he will return to us, and lift upon us the light of his countenance. But it is truly delightful when his kindness towards his people silences all the reflections of their enemies against him; and when he eminently bestows upon them his presence and Spirit, and assures them of their everlasting relation to and enjoyment of himself.