Ezekiel 39:14

14 They will appoint people who will continually cross through the land and bury the human remains that are left on the surface of the ground in order to purify it. They will begin their search at the end of seven months.

Ezekiel 39:14 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 39:14

And they shall sever out men of continual employment
That is, the principal of the house of Israel, their magistrates and governors, shall select certain persons, to be daily employed in the following work, till ended: passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain
upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it;
these men will be appointed to go through the land of Israel, to gather up such carcasses and bones of dead men as remain anywhere after the seven months' burial before observed; and all passengers or travellers shall be assisting to them in it, both in directing where any such carcasses and bones may lie, and in bringing them to the common place of burial; that so the land may he thoroughly cleansed from such disagreeable objects: after the end of seven months shall they search
or begin to search, as the Targum; when seven months are ended, in which the people in general will be employed in burying the dead; these men before mentioned will be sent out into each part of the land, to search in caves, and dens and ditches; among thickets, thorns, and briers, where the slain may fall; or where soldiers, being wounded, might betake themselves and die; or their carcasses or bones be dragged and left by beasts and fowls; to find them out, and bring them to the place of interment.

Ezekiel 39:14 In-Context

12 For seven months, the house of Israel will bury them in order to cleanse the land.
13 All the people of the land will take part in the burial, so they will make a name for themselves on the day that I glorify myself. This is what the LORD God says.
14 They will appoint people who will continually cross through the land and bury the human remains that are left on the surface of the ground in order to purify it. They will begin their search at the end of seven months.
15 As the travelers cross through the land, when they see a human bone, they will set up a marker next to it until the gravediggers bury it in Hamon-gog Valley
16 (the name of the city is Hamonah). So they will purify the land.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. LXX; MT adds the travelers.
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