Ezekiel 39:12

12 And the house of Israel shall bury them, that they cleanse the land in seven months. (And it shall take the house of Israel seven months to bury them, yea, that long 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 shall not bear trees of countries, neither shall cut down of [the] forests, for they shall burn armours by fire; and they shall take preys of them, to whom they were preys, and they shall ravish their wasters, saith the Lord God. (And so they shall not need to carry wood out of the countryside, nor shall they need to cut it down from the forests, for they shall burn all the arms, or all the weapons, in the fire; and they shall take preys of them, to whom they were preys, and they shall rob, or waste, their wasters, saith the Lord God.)
11 And it shall be in that day, I shall give to Gog a named place, a sepulchre in Israel, the valley of waygoers at the east of the sea, that shall make them that pass forth for to wonder; and they shall bury there Gog, and all the multitude of him, and it shall be called The valley of the multitude of Gog. (And it shall be on that day, I shall give to Gog a place for a tomb, or for a grave, there in Israel, yea, the Valley of the Waygoers to the east of the Dead Sea, that shall make them who pass forth to wonder; and they shall bury Gog, and all his multitude there, and it shall be called The Valley of Hamongog.)
12 And the house of Israel shall bury them, that they cleanse the land in seven months. (And it shall take the house of Israel seven months to bury them, yea, that long to cleanse the land.)
13 Forsooth all the people of the land shall bury them, and it shall be a named day to them, in which I am glorified, saith the Lord God. (And all the people of the land shall bury them; and the day on which I am glorified, shall be a day of renown for them, saith the Lord God.)
14 And they shall ordain busily men compassing the land, that shall bury and seek them that were left on the face of the land, that they cleanse it. Forsooth after seven months they shall begin to seek, (And they shall ordain men to busily go about the land, to seek out and bury those who were left on the face of the land, so that they may altogether cleanse it. And they shall begin to seek them out after seven months,)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.