Ezekiel 39:12

12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them that they may cleanse the land.

Ezekiel 39:12 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 39:12

And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them,
&c.] So long time will the burial of Gog's army take up, because of the multitude of it, and by reason their bones will be scattered here and there; which will require time to gather them together, and bring them to one place: the reason of the burial of them will be, partly out of humanity, which the Christian religion, which will then be embraced by the Jews, teaches and encourages; and partly because of the disagreeable sight and ill smell of the carcasses of the slain, and to prevent the air being infected therewith, which might cause noxious diseases. Jarchi gives the reason of it, because Gog is of the seed of Japheth, who covered his father's nakedness, and therefore worthy of a funeral: but a better reason follows, that they may cleanse the land:
not from ceremonial uncleanness, a place being unclean, by the ceremonial law, where dead carcasses, or the bones of dead men, lay; for the ceremonial law, as it is abrogated, will now be disused by the Jews themselves, when converted; but from natural pollution, before mentioned.

Ezekiel 39:12 In-Context

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 in the fire; and they shall spoil those that spoiled them and rob those that robbed them, said 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 All the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown, the day that I shall be glorified, said the Lord GOD.
14 And they shall take men out of continual employment, who shall go through the land with the passengers to bury those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it; after the end of seven months they shall search.
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010