Ezekiel 39:4

4 On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all of your troops, and [the] peoples who [are] with you, to birds of prey, birds of every wing, and animals of the field I will give you as food.

Ezekiel 39:4 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 39:4

Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel
Be slain, and his carcass lie there; so the Targum,

``upon the mountains of the land of Israel thy carcass shall be cast:''

thou and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee; Gog and his army, auxiliaries and allies: I will give thee to the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts
of the field to be devoured:
a great part of his army being slain, should not be buried, but be devoured by birds of prey, and savage beasts; such as eagles and vultures of the former sort, and lions, bears, wolves of the latter. This was always reckoned a very sore judgment and dreadful calamity, not to have a burial, but to be exposed to birds and beasts of prey; this was threatened to the Israelites, in case of disobedience to the law of God, ( Deuteronomy 28:26 ) and to the wicked Jews in the times of Jeremiah; and to that evil king of Judah, Jehoiakim, ( Jeremiah 16:4 ) ( Jeremiah 22:18 Jeremiah 22:19 ) and is lamented as one of the greatest evils that could befall good men, ( Psalms 79:2 ) , and nothing was more dreadful among the Heathens themselves; hence Homer ^F26, among the many calamities Achilles was the cause of to the Grecians, mentions this as one, that he was the means of giving the bodies of a great number of their heroes to the dogs, and to the fowls of the air; so Virgil ^F1 represents the want of a burial, and being left to be fed upon by birds of prey, as severe a punishment of a wicked man as can be wished for.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 Iliad. 1. l. 4, 5.
F1 "----non te optima mater Condet humi, patriove onerrabit membra sepulchro Alitibus linquere feris". Aeneid. l. 10.

Ezekiel 39:4 In-Context

2 and I will turn you around, and I will drag you along, and I will bring you up from [the] remote areas of [the] north, and I will bring you against the mountains of Israel,

3 and I will strike your bow from {your left hand}, and your arrows from {your right hand} I will cause to fall.

4 On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all of your troops, and [the] peoples who [are] with you, to birds of prey, birds of every wing, and animals of the field I will give you as food.

5 On the surface of the field you will fall, for {I myself} have spoken," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

6 "And I will send fire against Magog and among [the people] inhabiting the coastlands {in safety}, and they will know that I [am] Yahweh.

Footnotes

• [a] Hebrew "bird"
• [b] Or "kind"