Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 39

Verses 1-24

EZEKIEL - CHAPTER 39

THE TERRIBLE OVERTHROW AND FALL OF GOG

Verses 1-24:

Verse 1 calls upon Ezekiel again to prophesy against Gog, the administrative civil ruler of Meshech and Tubal; And make it plain that the Lord was against him in his thoughts and purposes of action against Israel, as in Ezekiel 38:1-3.

Verse 2 warns Gog that the Lord would cause him (enable him) to sweep down over the mountains of Israel from the north, then turn him back in defeat so severe that only one sixth of all his army would survive, as also described Daniel 11:40-41; Daniel 11:45. The hook of six teeth in his jaws referred to six plagues that fell: 1) Pestilence, 2) blood, 3) a flood, 4) hailstones, 5) fire, and 6) brimstone, Ezekiel 38:4; Ezekiel 38:22.

Verse 3 adds that the Lord would effect this fall of Gog by smiting the bow out of his left hand, causing the arrow to fall from his right hand, to leave him helpless, defenseless on the battlefield, Psalms 7:11-12.

Verse 4 further declares that he will fall in death, upon the mountains of Israel, both he and all his bands of soldiers with him. The Lord further certifies that He will cause the ravenous, flesh­-eating birds, fowls, and vultures of every sort, to feast on their carcasses as well as the carnivorous beasts of the field. Such would be their inglorious burial and scattering on the battlefield mountains of Israel, Ezekiel 33:27; Daniel 11:45.

Verse 5 restates with emphasis of certainty that God would fall upon his face, in humiliation, on the open field of battle, Proverbs 29:1.

Verse 6 continues to warn that the Lord will send a fire on the land of Magog, and upon those who consorted with them in the isles, merchantmen, to destroy Israel and be partakers of her spoils, Nehemiah 1:6; Amos 1:4; See also Psalms 72:10; Isaiah 66:19; Jeremiah 25:22; Zephaniah 2:11; Ezekiel 38:20.

Verse 7 asserts that by this fiery judgment of Gog and his cohorts, in mercenary collusion with him on land and sea, the Lord would make known His holy name, in the midst of Israel, and not permit them to pollute it any more, Leviticus 18:21. Then the heathen will come to recognize that He is the Lord, the holy one of Israel, Ezekiel 38:16; Exodus 20:1-2.

Verse 8 declares that the utter defeat of Gomer and his colluding cohorts had been accomplished, in regards to the day whereof he had spoken. The idea is that the irrevocable purpose and decree of God, to destroy Gog, was so fixed and certain that it was spoken as if the event were already completed, though yet to be fulfilled, Isaiah 33:10; Isaiah 33:12; Ezekiel 7:2-10; Revelation 16:17; Revelation 21:6; See also Judges 7:22; 1 Samuel 14:10; Ezekiel 38:17; Romans 4:17.

Verse 9 states that the dwellers in the cities of Israel shall go out and set on fire and burn all instruments of warfare, such as the: arrows, hand-staves or javelins, spears, bows, shields, and bucklers, until none is left to pollute the land; The completion of the cleansing in the scriptures, Numbers 29:11. How different these of Israel were from those of their forefathers who left both battle arms and many of the heathen to live among them, Judges 1:27-28.

Verse 10 instructs that Israel shall take no wood out of the fields or cut down no trees out of the forest for these seven years, but burn the weapons of warfare with fire till the last is gone. They were directed then (to spoil, loot, and rob those who had come down with supplies to spoil them) by the Lord, who owns the earth and all things in it, Isaiah 14:2.

Verse 11 foretells that the Lord will give or deed to Gog a place of graves in Israel, the very land he meant to seize, along the valley of the passengers or travelers, on the high road east of the Dead Sea, from Syria to Petra and Egypt. The valley of open graves was to give up a stench of corruption that would stop the noses of those who passed by. There Gog and his inglorious horde would be buried, and the place would come to be known as Hamon-gog, meaning "the multitude of God," v. 15.

Verse 12 declares that it will take Israel seven months to bury the corpses of these fallen heathen, as the burial was required to cleanse the land area, Deuteronomy 21:23.

Verse 13 explains that all the people of the land of Israel will be involved in the seven months of burial activities, of these Gog-led enemies, who had arrayed themselves against God’s chosen people, to ravage and rape their land. The long and repulsive task of burying these heathen corpses, was to be recalled in all Israel as a day or period of renown, a day the Lord was to be glorified, by His judgment in the land, Psalms 126:2; Ezekiel 28:22.

Verse 14 further foretells that those employed in full time burial of bodies of Gog’s decaying army corpses should seek out and enlist those who passed by as highway sojourners to delay their travel and assist in searching out and burying the bodies, until seven months had passed.

Verse 15 directs that travelers passing through the land, upon seeing a corpse, were to drive down a stake, or set up or build a sign by it, until the body could be buried, that they might cleanse their land from pollution or defilement of unclean, putrefied flesh of the heathen dead in the holy land.

Verse 16 also directs that the name of the city of the dead was to be called Hamonah, meaning "the city of the multitude of the dead," overthrown by the Lord, Ezekiel 38:18-23. Thus they were to cleanse the land, as the Lord will one day cleanse His church, Ephesians 5:26-27.

Verse 17 recounts the Lord’s command to Ezekiel to call every feathered fowl and every beast of the field to come to a sacrificial slaughter feast that He had prepared for them, to give them flesh to eat, and blood to drink on every side, upon the mountains of Israel, as described Isaiah 18:6; Isaiah 34:6; Jeremiah 12:9; Zephaniah 1:7; Mark 9:45; Revelation 19:17-18.

Verse 18 offers to them the flesh of the mighty rulers, and their armed men, to eat, and their blood to drink. They too were offered the rams, lambs, goats, and bullocks, all fatlings of Bashan, ungodly men on which to glut themselves, much as related Revelation 19:18; Deuteronomy 32:14; Psalms 22:12; Zephaniah 1:7; Mark 9:45.

Verses 19, 20 explains that in this manner, carnivorous birds and beasts would eat fat and drink blood, until they were full or bloated; After this manner these unclean fowls or vultures and beasts would be filled with the dead flesh of men and horses of chariots, on the top of the mountain table, where their mighty men of politics, commerce, and war had been slain, at the word of the Lord God, Psalms 76:6; Ezekiel 38:4; Haggai 2:22; Revelation 19:18; 1 Samuel 17:4.

Verse 21 adds that through this judgment hand of the Lord, laid on Gog and his conspirators, the Lord will set His glory before the heathen, so that they will recognize the judgment that He has laid upon His and Israel’s enemies at last, Exodus 9:16; Exodus 14:4; Isaiah 26:11; Malachi 1:11; Exodus 7:4; See also Ezekiel 36:23; Ezekiel 38:16.

Verses 22, 23 declare that the house of Israel shall recognize, from that day and forever, that the Lord is God. And the heathen will realize that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, Ezekiel 36:18-20; Ezekiel 36:23. They will then understand why the Lord hid His face or turned His back upon them, giving them into the hand of their enemies, Deuteronomy 31:17; Isaiah 59:2.

Verse 24 concludes that it was solely because of their uncleanness and transgressions that He gave them over to the consequence of their chosen ways of anarchy against Him and His laws, Exodus 20:1-5; Numbers 32:23; Galatians 6:7-8.

Verses 25-29

A VISION OF ISRAEL CONVERTED AND RESTORED

Verses 25-29:

Verse 25 foretells that at this point the Lord will restore, from captivity and calamity, to prosperity, all Israel, who has heretofore only had partial restorations; There is yet one to come that will be universal, Jeremiah 30:3; Romans 11:26; Hosea 1:11; Hosea 3:4-5. This the Lord does because He is jealous of His holy name.

Verse 26 relates that this full restoration of the nation of Israel will come when they shall have fully repented, borne personal shame with genuine repentance for their personal and national sins, even from the days before they were carried away captives from their land, thereafter dispersed among the nations, Luke 21:24; Zechariah 12:7-10; Daniel 9:16; Leviticus 26:5.

Verse 27 relates that when the Lord has gathered them from among the gentiles of the earth, back to their own fatherland, His holy name will be vindicated in His dealing with His people, Ezekiel 28:25; Ezekiel 36:23.

Verse 28 declares that at that time all Israel shall know that He is the Lord their God, who brought them again from among their enemies, gathered them in their own land, and left none of them abandoned any more, Ezekiel 34:30; Hosea 2:20.

Verse 29 assures them that the Lord will no more hide His face from them, because He has poured out His spirit upon them, to sanctify the whole house of Israel as His own, taken to Himself again, Isaiah 54:8; Joel 2:28; Zechariah 12:10; Ezekiel 43:5; Malachi 2:15; Philippians 1:6; Acts 2:17.