Ezekiel 39:1-16

Ezekiel 39:1-16

[1] Therefore, thou son  of man,  prophesy  against Gog,  and say,  the Lord  GOD;  Behold, I am against thee, O Gog,  the chief  prince  of Meshech  and Tubal:  [2] And I will turn thee back,  and leave but the sixth part  of thee, and will cause thee to come up  from the north  parts,  and will bring  thee upon the mountains  of Israel:  [3] And I will smite  thy bow  out of thy left  hand,  and will cause thine arrows  to fall  out of thy right  hand.  [4] Thou 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,  and to the beasts  of the field  to be devoured.  [5] Thou shalt fall  upon the open  field:  for I have spoken  it, saith  the Lord  GOD.  [6] And I will send  a fire  on Magog,  and among them that dwell  carelessly  in the isles:  and they shall know  that I am the LORD.  [7] So will I make my holy  name  known  in the midst  of my people  Israel;  and 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.  [8] Behold, it is come,  and it is done,  saith  the Lord  this is the day  whereof I have spoken.  [9] And they that dwell  in the cities  of Israel  shall go forth,  and shall set  on fire  and burn  the weapons,  both the shields  and the bucklers,  the bows  and the arrows,  and the handstaves,  and the spears,  and they shall burn  them with fire  seven  years:  [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:  and they shall spoil  them, and rob  them, saith  the Lord  GOD.  [11] And it shall come to pass in that day,  that I will give  unto Gog  a place  there of graves  in Israel,  the valley  of the passengers  on the east  of the sea:  and it shall stop  the noses of the passengers:  and there shall they bury  Gog  and all his multitude:  and they shall call  it The valley  of Hamongog.  [12] And seven  months  shall the house  of Israel  be burying  of them, that they may cleanse  the land.  [13] Yea, all the people  of the land  shall bury  them; and it shall be to them a renown  the day  that I shall be glorified,  saith  the Lord  GOD.  [14] And they shall sever out  of continual employment,  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.  [15] And the passengers  the land,  when any seeth  a man's  bone,  then shall he set up  a sign  by  it, till the buriers  it in the valley  of Hamongog.  [16] And also the name  of the city  shall be Hamonah.  Thus shall they cleanse  the land. 

What does Ezekiel 39:1-16 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

"Chapter39 retells the story of Gog"s attack and defeat but with a slightly different emphasis from that of the prior chapter. Not much attention is given to the attack itself (merely Ezekiel 39:1-2), whereas a great deal of space is devoted to describing the massive slaughter of Gog"s forces. In a sense, then, Chapter38 concentrates on the threat from the powers opposed to God and His people, while Chapter39 concentrates more on the deliverance of God"s people from that threat. The end of the chapter dwells at length on Israel"s restoration ( Ezekiel 39:21-29), especially on the immediate (pre-Gog) era of that restoration. Thus the chapter starts with the distant future but ends in the nearer future with the promise of return from captivity to the land of Canaan and the greater truths which that return points toward." [1]