And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall kindle fire, and burn weapons, and shields, and targets, bows, and arrows, and hand-staves, and spears and they shall make fires with them seven years.
Ezekiel 39 describes what happens after a failed invasion. Gog, a leader from the north, falls with his huge army on the mountains of Israel. He leaves behind a battlefield covered in weapons. Israel burns them as household fuel for seven years. Why burn them? Why seven years? And when does this happen?
This is not a general warning about aggressors. One writer calls the passage exact, and places it as the last of God's blows against Israel's enemies:
It is no vague warning of an enemy who may appear anywhere at any time. It is no general principle that repeats itself often in God's providence. The Holy Spirit takes pains here to make it precise and specific. This is the judgment of one distinct enemy, long delayed. It falls as the last of the Lord's blows on the most overwhelming force that will ever have gathered against Israel. It comes just before His glory returns in fresh splendour and peace, to live among His people in their land. So we get the sharply detailed picture of them going out from the cities in Palestine and burning the enemy's arms, both defensive and offensive. This is not only evidence of his total destruction. It is also their supply of firewood, so that they need no other store for seven years.
The verse names gear for defence and weapons for attack. Israel burns all of it. One writer asks why:
The winner usually gathers the arms of a beaten enemy and keeps them as trophies. If they can still be used, he stores them in his arsenals. Not so here. Fire destroys them. Might Israel not have some future use for this vast store? Would it not be wise to keep it? Why? The people lived in peace without walls or gates or bars. They had not lifted a weapon against the enemy! They had no call to fight; the Lord had done the overthrowing… The day for sword and spear had passed. The fires that burned for seven years would testify to this, and to Israel's confidence in the Lord.
The number is not only a length of time; it is a way of showing how vast the invading force was. The same is true of the seven months of burial that follow:
The greatness of Gog's army is brought out by the fact that it will take Israel seven years to use up the wood of his weapons for fuel (vv. 8-10), and it takes all the people of the land seven months to bury the dead (vv. 11-16).
Another writer draws the lesson the two numbers together teach:
Israel needs seven months to bury Gog's dead, and seven years to burn the instruments of war. These numbers emphasise the dreadful character of God's judgment on the great northern powers (Ezek. 39:8-15).
The burning is not tucked away in a corner. One writer marks when it happens and who sees it:
So many weapons will lie on the field that the children of Israel will not need to cut firewood for seven years afterwards. What a solemn lesson of righteous retribution, before all eyes, during the opening years of the millennium!… Little do those in charge of the Russian arsenals know the ultimate future of the vast stores in their hands.
Revelation also names Gog and Magog, but after the Millennium — the thousand-year reign of Christ. One writer keeps the two attacks apart:
Gog and Magog appear in Ezekiel 38 and 39 as the enemies of God's people before the Millennium. Here they are enemies again, after the Millennium. In Ezekiel, before the Millennium, multitudes die. It will take seven months to bury the slain. The captured instruments of war will supply fuel for the nation of Israel for seven years, without their having to cut down growing timber. In Revelation, after the Millennium, God consumes Gog and Magog and their multitudes outright.
- Seven, precise — this is not a general moral about war. It is one named enemy and one final blow, just before God's glory returns to His people's land.
- Seven, measured — seven years of fuel and seven months of burial together mark the dreadful weight of God's judgment.
- Seven, burned — Israel burns the weapons instead of storing them. The people never fought. The Lord did the overthrowing, and the day for sword and spear had passed.
- Seven, warmed — weapons built to destroy Israel end up heating Israel's homes for seven years.
- Seven, remembered — the fires burn in full view through the opening years of Christ's reign. This is not the last rising of Gog and Magog in Revelation 20.
And no wood shall be taken out of the field, neither cut down out of the forests; for they shall make fire with the weapons; and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and plunder those that plundered them, saith the Lord Jehovah.
Gog's huge army has fallen on the mountains of Israel. Now the people burn its weapons for seven years and strip the invader who came to strip them — but why burn an arsenal instead of storing it?
One writer refuses to read this as a general pattern that repeats through history:
It is no vague warning about an enemy, whenever and wherever he may appear. It is no general principle that reproduces itself again and again in God's providence. The Holy Spirit takes pains here to make it precise and specific. This is the judgment of one distinct enemy, long held back. It falls as the last of the Lord's blows on the most overwhelming force ever mustered against Israel. It comes just before His glory returns in fresh splendour and peace, to dwell among His people in their land. That is why the detail is so vivid: the people go out from the cities in Palestine and burn their enemy's weapons, both defensive and offensive. The burning is a witness to his total destruction, and it is also their supply of firewood, so that they need no other store for seven years.
Israel does not keep the captured weapons. One writer asks why not:
God first assures the prophet that these events are absolutely certain. It is the day the Lord has spoken of. A victor usually gathers the weapons of a beaten enemy and keeps them as trophies, or stores them in his arsenals if they can still be used. Not so here; they are burned. Might Israel not have some future use for this vast store? Would it not be wise to keep it? Why keep it? They were living in peace, without walls or gates or bars, and had not lifted a weapon against the enemy! They had not been called to fight; the Lord Himself had accomplished the overthrow. The day for sword and spear had passed. The fires that burned for seven years would bear witness to this, and to Israel's confidence being in the Lord. When the nations gather at Jerusalem then, it will be for a very different purpose from Gog's (Isaiah 2:1-4).
The practical detail about wood is a way of measuring the enemy. One writer connects it with the Russian arsenals of today:
Gog's army will leave so many weapons on the field that the people of Israel will not need to cut firewood for seven years afterwards. What a solemn lesson in righteous repayment, set before every eye during the opening years of the thousand-year reign! … The keepers of the Russian arsenals have little idea what will one day become of the vast stores under their hands.
Gog came for spoil, and spoil is exactly what he becomes. One writer ties this to the very ground the invader had once stripped:
The nations once laid the mountains of Israel waste, gorging themselves on the spoil of the Lord's people. Now the rich and mighty of those nations fall there to utter destruction. Where they once plundered, they are now taken as plunder. Such is the sowing and the reaping.
The long burning is not merely disposal. Together with the seven months of burial, it fixes a lesson in front of Israel and the nations:
It will take seven months to bury Gog's dead, and seven years to burn the weapons of war. Both show how dreadful God's judgment on the great northern powers will be. God's dealing with Gog teaches Israel and the nations two things. He is jealous for His holy Name. And having disciplined His people for their sins, He will bless them in their own land, which He has given them.
- Specific — one named enemy, judged at one set time. This is not a pattern that keeps repeating in history. The exact detail is deliberate.
- Given — Israel had not fought. The Lord Himself overthrew the enemy, so the spoil they gather is not a prize they earned.
- Burned — an arsenal kept would say war might come again. An arsenal burned says the day for sword and spear is over. Israel's confidence rests in the Lord.
- Reversed — the invader came to take spoil and is taken as spoil on the very ground he once stripped. Sowing and reaping run at national scale.
- Remembered — seven years of fires and seven months of burial hold the lesson in view. God is jealous for His holy Name, and He blesses His people in the land He gave them.
And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will give unto Gog a place there for burial in Israel, the valley of the passers-by to the east of the sea; and it shall stop [the way] of the passers-by; and there shall they bury Gog and all the multitude; and they shall call it, Valley of Hamon-Gog.
Ezekiel 39 closes an invasion story that ends in total defeat. Verse 11 turns from the battlefield to the burial ground: the invader came to seize land, and God gives him land — a grave. Where is this valley? Why does the grave stop travellers, and what does its name say about God?
Gog is a name for a northern power. Magog was a son of Japheth, one of Noah's sons.
GOG is a symbolic name for the powerful and proud chief of the vast hordes of Scythia and Tartary. MAGOG, the son of Japheth (Gen. 10:2), whose descendants spread over the vast steppes in the north, after whom the land is here called. … These come out of the north like a cloud to cover the land. They will attack Israel in the land of Palestine, but God will strike them down. … The valley where they will be buried will be called HAMON-GOG, the "multitude of Gog."
The invader came for gain.
After the birds and the beasts have done their grim work, there will be nothing but bones to bury, but this will be a huge task. The whole house of Israel will be busy some seven months in this dismal service. Gog will come up expecting to take lands and much plunder, but will only find a grave.
Kelly sets Gog's ambition beside its outcome.
Did Gog think to take the land for a possession? Jehovah will give him there a grave; and this in no obscure spot but in the direct pathway of many passers by.
One older English translation adds a word here that sends readers the wrong way.
There was no need to insert the word "noses" in verse 11 in the Authorised Version. Adding it obscures the sense. The point is not so much an offensive smell. It is that this vast burying operation will cause all who pass by to stop and consider. So God will teach a solemn lesson to many. His own people, as they pause and look, may well say: "So may all your enemies perish, O LORD! But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might" (Judges 5:31).
Kelly makes the same correction. The burial mounds stop everyone who passes and lead them to think of the vengeance poured out on Gog's men.
No one can pin down the exact site. But the burial does two things: it cleanses the land, and it leaves a name.
The land is now cleansed of its defilement through death by the burial of Gog's multitude. This place of a grave will remain a memorial to later generations; those who pass by will stop there to consider Jehovah's judgment. This valley is hard to locate. But the language suggests the area near the Dead Sea, and a route of general travel between the land and the east of the sea. So that no one forgets the lesson, the valley will be called Hamon-Gog, "multitude of Gog." A city will carry a name that records this judgment.
Blocking the road has an effect. Travellers get pulled into the work and take the story home.
The "passers-by" may be travellers who pass through the land. The valley route is closed (v. 11), so they take another way. Suppose they are called on, along with the men given that special job, to help bury the dead as they pass. Then we may see how the news of what God had done to Gog would travel to distant peoples. Travellers put to work burying bodies or setting up signs would ask about this striking event. They would spread the news as they travelled. In this way people far away would learn of Israel's renown and Jehovah's glory, as verse 13 shows.
The detail in these verses shapes how we read them.
It is no vague warning of an enemy wherever and whenever he may appear; it is no general principle that repeats itself often in God's providence. The Holy Spirit takes pains here to make it precise and specific. This is the judgment of one distinct enemy, long delayed. It falls as the last of Jehovah's blows on the most overwhelming force that will ever have gathered against Israel. It comes just before His glory returns in fuller splendour and peace to dwell among His people in their land.
Kelly has one answer for those who reduce the prophecy to a symbol: has Jehovah spoken, and will He not perform it?
- Greed — Gog comes for land and spoil, and attacks Israel in their own land.
- Grave — God gives him land, but only a grave; the man who came to take a country gets a burial plot.
- Halt — the graves lie across a travelled road, so passers-by stop and think about God's judgment.
- Name — the valley becomes Hamon-Gog, "multitude of Gog," a memorial fixed on the map for later generations.
- Spread — travellers help with the burying and carry the report home. Israel's renown and God's glory travel further than Gog's armies ever did.
And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land;
Gog leads a great army from the north against Israel, and God destroys it. Israel is left to bury the dead for seven months, and the reason given is not hygiene but cleansing — so why does the land need cleansing at all?
Gog came to take territory. One writer sets the scale of the burial beside that ambition:
After the birds and the beasts have finished their grim work, there will be nothing left but bones to bury. Even this will be an enormous task. The whole house of Israel will spend about seven months in this dismal service. Gog will come up thinking to gain lands and much spoil, but will only find a grave.
The purpose the verse gives is cleansing, and the standard is exact. Even seven months of burial do not finish the job:
Seven months are not enough to purge the land entirely, so at the end of that time men will be set apart to finish the work. The land is to be Jehovah's land, and glory is to dwell there. So nothing that clashes with His holy presence may remain there, however trivial it seems… A bone is quite enough to defile the land in Jehovah's eyes, as Numbers 19:16-18 shows.
Another writer links this care to the day it marks:
The care taken to purify the land from the sight of a man's bone is remarkable. Yet it is natural, if glory is to dwell there… But this is the day when all impurity disappears from the land that Jehovah recognises as His own. It is the day when He is glorified, then and there.
The prophecy gives two spans: seven months for the bodies, seven years for burning the weapons. Both measure the judgment, and both are meant to teach:
Seven months are needed to bury Gog's dead, and seven years to burn the weapons of war. Both underline the dreadful character of God's judgment on the great northern powers (Ezek. 39:8-15). Israel and the nations are to learn two things from God's dealing with Gog. He is jealous for His holy Name. And having disciplined His people for their sins, He will bless them in their own land, which He has given them (Ezek. 39:21-29).
Burying an enemy army is grim work. Yet the prophecy turns it into something all nations will notice:
This burial of the slain will be a renown for Israel. It will give them a name of fame and honour before all nations. They bury the foe, instead of being buried under the weight of Gog's avalanche. This is so, because it is the day on which Jehovah is glorified in overcoming their enemies.
A burial this long assumes a people already settled in their own land. Commentators place Gog's attack after Israel's restoration, though they differ on the exact order. One sets it in the days of peace that follow:
Ezekiel shows what comes in the days of peace and prosperity that follow the gracious work of restoration recorded in the previous chapters. Jehovah will bring up against His people and their land these great and powerful nations that lie outside the limits of the empires Daniel speaks of… But Gog and his hosts come up after those scenes of judgment, when Israel is dwelling safely. Jehovah does this to display before all nations His absolute supremacy in all the earth.
Another writer places it soon after Christ's throne is set up, and notes how fast the invasion collapses:
So we find that after the establishment of His throne — perhaps not long after — Gog comes up against His people Israel with a multitude of followers, "a great host, a mighty army," "like a cloud covering the land." But he comes only to meet immediate and utter destruction.
- Ambition — Gog comes for land and spoil. The only ground he gets is a grave, and the nation he meant to bury buries him.
- Cleansing — The seven months have one stated reason. The land is God's, and His glory will dwell there, so it must be clean.
- Thoroughness — One exposed bone defiles the land. So after the seven months, chosen men search on until nothing offensive is left.
- Measure — Seven months of burial and seven years of burning weapons measure how dreadful God's judgment on the northern powers is.
- Renown — The grim task becomes Israel's honour before all nations. The day that cleanses their land is the day God is glorified.
and all the people of the land shall bury [them]; and it shall be to them for renown in the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord Jehovah.
A huge army under the leader Gog has invaded Israel and fallen on its mountains, and now the whole nation must bury the dead. The verse ties three things together: the nation at work, the honour it brings them, and the day God shows His glory.
This is not a past battle. It is a future one, after God has brought the scattered nation home. One commentator says the details fix the timing:
But it is the day when all impurity disappears from the land which the Lord recognises as His own, when He is then and there glorified. Can there be a legitimate doubt about when these conditions meet? It is plain to see what this is about. It is God judging the last leader of the Russian lands in the Holy Land, after He has brought Israel back from the lands where they were scattered.
The invader came to take the land. What he receives is a plot of ground in it. One writer notes that Israel will not even have to fight:
This prophecy does more than warn the people about this last great invasion and so prepare them. It is also meant to give them confidence. It makes known that the Lord will act on their behalf — He who has so wonderfully established them in the land under the True Shepherd. Further, they will not need to fight. The Lord will rise up in His fury. He will fight and triumph in glory. Gog will find not a spoil but a grave in Israel's fair land. That grave will be a lasting memorial, a witness to the Lord's great power in judgment on this insolent enemy.
The burial ground lies on a public route, and it stops those who pass by. An older English translation added the word "noses," pointing to a bad smell. One writer rejects that reading:
Did Gog think to take the land for a possession? The Lord will give him a grave there; and this in no obscure spot but in the direct pathway of many who pass by. The idea is not, as our translators imagined, that people would hold their noses because of the bad smell. It is that the burial mounds of so many men would halt everyone who passes that way, and lead them to think about the vengeance poured out on them.
"All the people of the land" is not an exaggeration. Everyone joins in because the point is not disposal but cleansing. The standard is high:
The seven months are not enough to purge the land fully. At the end of that time, a team of men will take up the work and finish it. The land is to be the Lord's land, and glory is to dwell there. So nothing that clashes with His holy presence may remain, however trivial it may appear… Everyone moving about in the land must help with the cleansing. They will mark stray bones that catch their eye, so that everything offensive is removed. A single bone is enough to defile the land in the Lord's eyes, as Numbers 19:16-18 shows.
A mass burial seems a grim thing to be famous for. One writer points to the alternative that never happened:
This burial of the slain will be a renown for Israel. It will give them a name of fame and honour before all nations. They bury the enemy, instead of being buried under the weight of Gog's avalanche. This is so because it is the day on which the Lord is glorified in overcoming their enemies.
Israel's sins had long dishonoured God's name, and the nations who struck them mocked Him for it:
The Lord had humbled and struck Israel in judgment, using the nations as the rod of His anger. But those He used did not consider it. They mocked and boasted, and they blasphemed the Lord's name. Surely He counted for less than their own idol-gods. He could not defend or save His professed people! They gloried in ruining the land and the people that bore that name. Israel had made the Lord serve with their sins, so that His name was dishonoured among the nations… The overwhelming judgment of Gog will cause this reproach to pass away. It will show His power over the mightiest on earth.
- Grave, not spoil — Gog comes to seize the land and is given only a plot in it; God fights, and Israel does not need to.
- Grave becomes monument — the burial ground sits on a public road, so everyone passing by stops and thinks about the judgment.
- Monument needs cleansing — the land belongs to God and glory is to dwell there, so one stray bone is enough to defile it.
- Cleansing becomes renown — Israel buries the enemy instead of being buried by him. That reversal wins them honour before all nations.
- Renown rests on His glory — the day belongs to God, not Israel. His name was mocked among the nations, and this one act of judgment clears it.
And they shall sever out men of continual employment to go through the land, who, with the passers-by, shall bury those that remain upon the face of the land, to cleanse it at the end of seven months shall they make a search.
God has struck down Gog's vast army, and now the prophecy turns to the clean-up. Verse 14 sets apart a permanent team to keep walking the land and burying what is left — so why does God care about a few scattered bones?
The names in Ezekiel 38–39 point to an invader from the far north.
GOG is a symbolic name for the powerful and proud chief of the vast hordes of Scythia and Tartary. … Gog is the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, answering to Russia, Moscow or Muscovy, and Tobolsk… They come "out of the north," "as a cloud to cover the land." They will attack Israel in the land of Palestine, but God will strike them down… The valley where they are buried will be called HAMON-GOG, the "multitude of Gog."
The burying has already gone on for seven months. Verse 14 adds a further step.
Seven months are not enough to clear the land entirely. At the end of that time, a team of men will be appointed to finish the work. The land is to be Jehovah's land, and glory is to dwell there. So nothing out of keeping with His holy presence may remain, however trivial it may seem… Everyone who moves about in the land is expected to help with the cleansing. They are to set a mark beside stray bones they come across, so that nothing offensive is left. A bone is quite enough to defile the land in the eyes of Jehovah, as Num. 19:16-18 shows.
Who are these travellers? Some take them to be Gog's fallen army. One writer argues otherwise.
Because the same word is used in verses 14 and 15, it can hardly refer to the hosts of Gog, as some suggest. The "passers-by" are clearly distinct from the "men of continual employment." They may well be travellers who pass through the land. If so, they are called on, along with the men of special appointment, to help bury the dead as they pass… In this way the news of what God had done to Gog would be carried to distant peoples. Travellers made to serve, either by burying or by setting up signs, would naturally ask about this striking event and spread the news as they travelled. So Israel's renown and Jehovah's glory would be made known.
The reason lies in who is coming to live in that land.
The care to purify the land from the sight of a man's bone is remarkable, but natural if glory is to dwell there. The "men of continuance" are officially appointed to the work. Their task is to bury every trace of the enormous slaughter of the enemy… But it is the day when all impurity disappears from the land which Jehovah recognises as His own, when He is then and there glorified.
The law in Numbers 19, mentioned above, shows how little it took to be unclean.
If the man only touched a bone, he was unclean… And so it spread from one to another. So, after all, it is a question of what God calls clean, and not of what we call clean. And God calls nothing clean except what is absolutely fit for His glory.
The names left on the map teach later generations what happened there.
The land is now cleansed of its defilement through death by the burial of Gog's multitude. This place of a grave will remain a memorial to later generations. Those who pass by will stop there to consider Jehovah's judgment. This valley is hard to place on a map. The language points to the area of the Dead Sea, on a route of general travel between the land and the east of the sea. So that the lesson is not forgotten, the valley will be called Hamon-Gog, "multitude of Gog." A city will bear a name that keeps this judgment in memory.
The same writer applies this burial work to our own broken plans.
Judgment carried out on proud flesh always leaves an aftermath. The torch must be applied to it, or the grave must be dug for it. The collapse of every self-willed, fleshly plan leaves something we must remove or bury out of sight as loathsome and corrupt… Yet this is how we plunder the plunderer. The graves of our desires stand as a memorial. They warn us by the lessons they teach, but they lead the exercised soul to confidence in an ever faithful God, so that after all He is glorified.
- Cleanse — this is not about hygiene. The land is God's own, and nothing out of keeping with His holy presence may stay in it.
- Continue — seven months of burying still left work undone. So men were set apart to keep searching until the land was clean.
- Cooperate — the appointed team is not left alone. Travellers mark the bones they see, and carry the news of God's judgment away with them.
- Count nothing small — one bone made a person unclean. God calls clean only what fits His glory, not what looks acceptable to us.
- Commemorate — the valley and the city keep Gog's name. Those who pass by stop and consider the judgment God carried out there.
And the passers-by shall pass through the land, and when [any] seeth a man's bone, he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-Gog.
Ezekiel 39 ends the story of Gog's invasion with a strange, patient scene: a whole nation clearing its land, and ordinary travellers stopping to mark a single bone. Why would God care about one bone?
This verse belongs to a second stage of the work. The first seven months of burying were not enough. Now a permanent team takes over, and passing travellers become their eyes.
The seven months were not enough to purge the land entirely, so a staff of men will take over at the end of that time to finish the work. The land is to be Jehovah's land, and glory is to dwell there. So nothing that clashes with His holy presence may remain, however trivial it seems… Everyone who moves about in the land is expected to help with the cleansing. They are to set a mark beside stray bones that meet their eyes, so that everything offensive is completely removed. A bone is quite enough to defile the land in the eyes of Jehovah, as Numbers 19:16-18 shows.
Numbers 19 — the law behind this — treated contact with death as defiling. And the defilement spread.
If a man only touched a bone, he was unclean. And the man who touched the bone was not the only one. If another person touched him, or anything he had touched, that other person was unclean too… So, after all, it is a question of what God calls clean, and not of what we call clean. And God calls nothing clean except what is absolutely fit for His glory.
The searching is not squeamishness about corpses. It fits a land God is about to fill with His presence. And everyone shares the work — the appointed men, the residents, and anyone passing through.
The care to purify the land from the sight of a man's bone is remarkable, but natural if glory is to dwell there. People in general, even if they were only passing through, are to help those set apart for the work — "men of continuance." Their task is to bury every relic of the enormous slaughter of the enemy. All the dwellers in the land take part too. The multitude slain and buried will give its name to a city in the land. But this is the day when all impurity disappears from the land that Jehovah recognises as His own. It is the day when He is glorified there.
The burial ground is not tucked away out of sight. It sits on a travelled route, where the traveller who stops is meant to draw a conclusion.
Did Gog think to take the land for a possession? Jehovah will give him a grave there; and not in some obscure spot, but in the direct pathway of many who pass by. The idea is not, as our translators imagined, that people would hold their noses because of the bad smell. Rather, the burial mounds of so many men would halt everyone who passes that way and make them think of the vengeance poured out on them.
The place-name in this verse is part of the lesson. The valley and a city both carry the memory of what happened, and the burial itself turns into honour for Israel.
The land is now cleansed of its defilement through death by the burial of Gog's multitude. … So that the lesson may not be forgotten, the valley shall be called Hamon-Gog, "multitude of Gog," and a city shall bear a name that keeps this judgment in memory. This burial of the slain will be a renown for Israel. It will give them a name of fame and honour before all nations. They bury the foe, instead of being buried under the weight of Gog's avalanche.
Who is Gog? One reference work ties the name to lands north of Israel, and reads the invasion as still to come.
Gog is the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, answering to Russia, Moscow or Muscovy, and Tobolsk… These come "out of the north," "as a cloud to cover the land." They will attack Israel in the land of Palestine, but God will strike them down. The valley where they will be buried will be called HAMON-GOG, the "multitude of Gog."
- Cleansing. Seven months of burial still left traces. A standing team keeps working until the land is clean, because God deals with defilement thoroughly.
- Cleansing for glory. God's glory is to dwell in the land, so nothing out of keeping with His presence may stay, however small.
- Cleansing by everyone. A passer-by who spots a bone marks it for the buriers. One person's noticing serves the whole nation's purity.
- Cleansing as witness. The grave sits on a main road so that travellers stop and think about the judgment poured out there.
- Cleansing remembered. Valley and city keep the name of Gog's multitude. Later generations cannot forget what God did, and the burial becomes Israel's renown.
And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.
The burial account closes with a name: a city called Hamonah stands where Gog's army lies buried. Why does a name matter so much, and why does Scripture spend six verses on burying bones?
The city takes its name from what happened on that spot.
The name of the place where the multitudes of Gog are to be buried after their destruction. This apparently will give the place its name, which signifies "multitude."
The valley and the city are both named so that later generations cannot forget what God did on that spot.
The land is now cleansed of its defilement through death by the burial of Gog's multitude. This place of a grave will abide a memorial to later generations; those who pass by will stop there to consider Jehovah's judgment. The exact spot of this valley is hard to locate. The wording points to the area of the Dead Sea, and to a main route between the land and the country east of the sea. The lesson must not be forgotten. So the valley will be called Hamon-Gog, "multitude of Gog," and a city will carry a name that keeps the memory of this judgment.
The verse ends with cleansing. The standard for it is God's own holiness.
The seven months are not enough to purge the land entirely. So at the end of that time a chosen team of men will finish the work. The land is to be Jehovah's land, and glory is to dwell there. So nothing that clashes with His holy presence may remain, however small it may seem… One bone is quite enough to defile the land in the eyes of Jehovah, as Num. 19:16-18 shows.
Two groups do the cleansing: the men appointed to bury, and travellers who mark what they find.
The care to purify the land from the sight of a man's bone is remarkable, but natural if glory is to dwell there. People in general, even if they are only passing through, are to help the men appointed for the work, the "men of continuance." Their task is to bury every trace of the enemy's huge slaughter. All the people living in the land take part in it too. The multitude slain and buried will give its name to a city in the land. But this is the day when all impurity disappears from the land which Jehovah recognises as His own. Then and there He is glorified.
Who are the "passers-by" who help with the burying? One writer takes them as ordinary travellers, and sees a purpose in putting them to work.
The "passers-by" are clearly different from the "men of continual employment." Might they be, as Keil suggests, "travellers who pass through the land"? If so, they are called on to join the specially appointed men in burying the dead as they pass through the land. The usual route of the valley is closed (v. 11), so they take another way. We can see how this would carry the news of what God had done to Gog to distant peoples. Travellers put to work burying or setting up signs would ask about this remarkable event. They would spread the news as they travelled. In this way Israel's renown and Jehovah's glory would become known, as v. 13 shows.
The same writer draws out a lesson for today's reader.
Judgment on proud flesh always leaves an aftermath. Something must be burned, or something must be buried. When a self-willed plan of the flesh collapses, what it leaves behind is loathsome and corrupt, and it must be cleared away or buried out of sight… Yet this is how we spoil the spoiler and plunder the plunderer. The graves of our desires stand as a memorial. They warn us by the lessons they teach, but they lead the exercised soul to confidence in an ever faithful God, so that after all He is glorified.
The cleansing clears the ground for what comes next in Ezekiel's account.
First comes the great display of the enemy's arrogance, then his destruction, then the purging of the land from the defilement of their corpses. Next in this beautiful sequence comes the dwelling place of God, with the detail of how it is set up. It is the Sanctuary of the land and people, the divine centre of the earth, for "The Lord is there."
- Named. Hamonah means "multitude." The city takes its name from the army buried there, so the map itself remembers the judgment.
- Cleansed. One bone is enough to defile, because the land is Jehovah's and glory is to dwell there.
- Shared. Appointed buriers and ordinary travellers both work; everyone in the land takes part.
- Spread. Travellers join the work, then carry the story home, so distant peoples hear of Jehovah's glory.
- Indwelt. Purging clears the way for the Sanctuary, the divine centre of the earth: "The Lord is there."