Ezekiel 39:12

12 And the house of Israel will bury them for seven months to 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 And they will not carry trees from the field, and they will not chop wood from the forests, for with the weapons they will light a fire; and they will plunder [those] plundering them, and they will plunder [those] plundering them," ' {declares} the Lord Yahweh.
11 " '"{And then} on that day I will give to Gog {a grave there} in Israel, The Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea, and it {will block} the travelers and Gog and all of his hordes they will bury there, and they will call [it] the Valley of {Hamon-Gog}.
12 And the house of Israel will bury them for seven months to cleanse the land.
13 All of the people of the land will bury them, and it will be an honor for them [on] the day when I appear," ' {declares} the Lord Yahweh.
14 ?"And they will set apart {men to continually} go through the land burying the travelers, the ones left over on [the] surface of the land to cleanse it; {for the whole of} seven months they will explore [it].
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.