Ezekiel 39:4

4 "You will ¹fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you as ²food to every kind of predatory bird and beast of the field.

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, drive you on, take you up from the remotest parts of the north and bring you against the mountains of Israel.

3 "I will strike your bow from your left hand and dash down your arrows from your right hand.

4 "You will fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you as food to every kind of predatory bird and beast of the field.

5 "You will fall on the open field; for it is I who have spoken," declares the Lord GOD.

6 "And I will send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands in safety; and they will know that I am the LORD .

Cross References

• 1. Isaiah 14:24, 25; Ezekiel 39:17-20
• 2. Ezekiel 29:5; Ezekiel 32:4, 5; Ezekiel 33:27

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "wing"