seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Ezekiel 39:1 “Son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince of[a] Meshek and Tubal. 2 I will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel. 3 Then I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand. 4 On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild animals. 5 You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. 6 I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in safety in the coastlands, and they will know that I am the Lord.
7 “‘I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the Lord am the Holy One in Israel. 8 It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign Lord. This is the day I have spoken of.
9 “‘Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel and burn them up—the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel. 10 They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign Lord.
11 “‘On that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the valley of those who travel east of the Sea. It will block the way of travelers, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon Gog.[b]
12 “‘For seven months the Israelites will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. 13 All the people of the land will bury them, and the day I display my glory will be a memorable day for them, declares the Sovereign Lord. 14 People will be continually employed in cleansing the land. They will spread out across the land and, along with others, they will bury any bodies that are lying on the ground.
“‘After the seven months they will carry out a more detailed search. 15 As they go through the land, anyone who sees a human bone will leave a marker beside it until the gravediggers bury it in the Valley of Hamon Gog, 16 near a town called Hamonah.[c] And so they will cleanse the land.’
17 “Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Call out to every kind of bird and all the wild animals: ‘Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrifice I am preparing for you, the great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood. 18 You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as if they were rams and lambs, goats and bulls—all of them fattened animals from Bashan. 19 At the sacrifice I am preparing for you, you will eat fat till you are glutted and drink blood till you are drunk. 20 At my table you will eat your fill of horses and riders, mighty men and soldiers of every kind,’ declares the Sovereign Lord.
21 “I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the punishment I inflict and the hand I lay on them. 22 From that day forward the people of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God. 23 And the nations will know that the people of Israel went into exile for their sin, because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. 24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their offenses, and I hid my face from them.
25 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will now restore the fortunes of Jacob[d] and will have compassion on all the people of Israel, and I will be zealous for my holy name. 26 They will forget their shame and all the unfaithfulness they showed toward me when they lived in safety in their land with no one to make them afraid. 27 When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will be proved holy through them in the sight of many nations. 28 Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. 29 I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the people of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
a. Ezekiel 39:1 Or Gog, prince of Rosh,
b. Ezekiel 39:11 Hamon Gog means hordes of Gog.
c. Ezekiel 39:16 Hamonah means horde.
d. Ezekiel 39:25 Or now bring Jacob back from captivity
This is from the easy English site.
The Lord tells again how he will kill Gog and his armies. The Lord will cause Gog to come from the far north. Gog will try to attack Israel. But the Israelites will not need to defend themselves. Without the help of men, the Lord will fight against Gog. Gog will be like a soldier with no bow and no arrows. Such a soldier cannot fight. He cannot shoot at his enemies. So, Gog and his armies will not be able to fight against the Lord.
The Lord will strike Gog and his armies in the country called Israel. The phrase ‘mountains of Israel’ means the country called Israel. The Lord will kill Gog and he will destroy all who are with him. Their dead bodies will lie in the fields. There will be a vast number of dead bodies. So, there will be no time to bury them. They will lie all over the mountains and fields. There the birds and wild animals will eat them.
There will be a vast number of weapons where the soldiers fell. The people will come from the cities to collect them. They will burn all these weapons. But there will be so many weapons that it will take 7 years to burn them. The people will need no other fuel for their fires.
Gog and his armies intended to rob Israel of its wealth. Instead, the Israelites will take all that Gog’s armies had brought with them.
Gog’s armies will be very large. So, there will be a real problem. The Israelites will have to bury all those dead bodies. The Lord told them where to bury the bodies. The graves will be in the valley where people travel east toward the Sea. The ‘Sea’ probably means the Dead Sea. There will be so many graves in the valley that it will no longer be a route to the sea. They will give the valley a new name. They will call it Hamon-Gog, which means ‘Gog’s vast crowd.’
It will take more than 7 months to bury all the bodies. Even after that time, men will search the country. Where they find human bones, they will mark the place. Other men will collect the bones and they will bury them in the valley.
The men will search for bones after the great meal of the birds and animals. The Lord will kill the great armies on the mountains of *Israel. He will invite the birds and the animals to come and to eat. They will eat the bodies and drink the blood. All that will remain of the armies will be the bones.
The nations thought that God could not save his people. But the exile of the Jews did not show a weakness in God. Rather it showed that God is holy. He sent the Jews away because they had sinned against him. When God punishes the nations, then they will understand this. They will see his power and his glory.
This has not happened yet. The Jews do not live in peace in their country. They have not accepted Jesus the Messiah as their king. They wait still for his return. The nations do not realise that God is holy. But God has said that all these things will happen in the future.
This is from the blueletterbible.org site.Those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons: Israel will destroy all the military equipment (described with seven terms) brought by Gog and his allies. Protected by Yahweh, they would no longer need the weapons themselves.
“These are not the weapons of a modern army, but Ezekiel used language the people could understand.” (Wiersbe)
Usually weapons left by a defeated enemy would be added to the victor’s cache of arms. After all, there would be other battles to fight. The war against Gog was to be no ordinary war. It will be the final battle, whose conclusion will make armaments obsolete.” (Vawter and Hoppe)
For seven years: This speaks of the vast amount of military equipment brought by Gog and her allies and left behind on the field of battle. There would be so much that they could use their fuel for seven years.
They will plunder those who plundered them: The evil Gog and his allies intended for Israel would fall upon the defeated attackers themselves.
“The plunderers will be plundered and the robbers will be robbed. What the enemy will intend for Israel (Ezekiel 38:12) will be visited upon them, another vivid example of the law of recompense in kind.” (Feinberg)
This bit about burning weapons for fuel.... whether for one day or for seven years.... made no sense to me. How are the descendants of Israel going to burn an assault weapon..... or a missile? That's where the blueletterbible.org commentary came in to clear things up. They will destroy weapons for seven years.... they will melt them down.... they will burn anything disposable. They will turn the sword into a plow. Weapons.... don't talk about weapons... who needs weapons when they have God to fight for them. BUT..... I have always had a second opinion about the fuel they would burn..... and none of the commentaries this morning are addressing my theory so I'm going to use it here..... what if this war was nuclear? The descendants of Jacob [Israel] have nuclear power plants in Israel. What if the weapons they destroy are "equivalent" to the enriched uranium to fuel the plants for seven years. What if..... the radioactive fall out wiped out all of the enemy but the descendants of Jacob [Israel] were not hurt by nuclear fall out. Now that sounds like something God would and could do.... I'm recalling what happened in Daniel 3.... when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego walked around unburned and soot free in the fire.
Apparently..... this will be a final battle.... which puts it in the "End Times" category..... there will be so many dead... that it will take seven months to bury the ones just laying around.... and then bone hunters will search out all the bones that contaminate the land.....contaminate...... that's a good word for bodies and blood everywhere.....
Interesting..... a woman had to leave town and sacrifice two doves when she had a mistral cycle..... to keep things clean.... imagine.... how much cleaning they would have to do to wipe away all the blood that will be spilled that day.
