Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Ezekiel · About this commentary
Seven Months of Burying
Ezekiel 39:1-29
1 “You, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. · WEB
The aftermath is described as sanitation rather than triumph, and the reason the exile happened at all is finally stated in one sentence.
The battle itself takes very little space. The bow is struck out of Gog's left hand and the arrows out of his right, and he falls on the mountains of Israel with all his hordes, given to the birds and the beasts. What the chapter dwells on instead is what has to be done afterward, and the details are practical to the point of being domestic.
First the fuel. The people of the cities burn the abandoned weapons — shields, bucklers, bows, arrows, war clubs, spears. They burn them for seven years, so that they will take no wood out of the field, and not cut down any out of the forests. The armament of the world's last coalition heats Israel's houses, and the practical effect noted is that nobody has to fell a tree. Weapons are treated purely as timber.
Then the burial, which takes seven months and is organized like a public works project. A valley is set aside. All the people take part. Afterward men are appointed of continual employment to walk the country in a systematic search. The procedure for a straggler is specified. When a man sees a human bone he sets up a marker beside it and leaves it for the burial party. The purpose is stated three times — that they may cleanse the land. This is a priest's chapter. The concern is not victory but defilement, and a corpse defiled the ground it lay on.
The last five verses close the whole book's argument. God will reverse the captivity, be jealous for his holy name, and gather them from their enemies' lands. And then the reason for everything from chapter 1 onward is given in a single sentence: They will know that I am Yahweh their God, in that I caused them to go into captivity among the nations, and have gathered them to their own land. Both halves are his act, and the knowledge is the product of the pair. The final promise is the one the first half of the book made impossible: I won't hide my face from them any more, for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel.
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