Ezekiel 39

So then, son of man, speak against Gog as a prophet. Say: This is what the Lord GOD says: I am against you, Gog, chief ruler of Meshech and Tubal.

1Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:

Note"Son of man" is God's standard way of addressing Ezekiel throughout the book; in Hebrew it simply means "human being" or "mortal," marking the distance between the prophet and the God speaking to him. Meshech and Tubal were real peoples of eastern Asia Minor (modern Turkey), known from Assyrian records as traders and metalworkers at the far northern edge of Israel's world. Gog is not otherwise known from history. The Hebrew phrase behind "chief ruler" can be read either as "chief prince" or as "prince of Rosh," a place name; translators are divided.

2I will turn you around and drive you along. I will bring you up from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel.

2And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:

NoteInvading armies could not cross the desert, so they entered Israel from the north down the coastal and inland routes. "From the north" was therefore the standard direction of attack, and in the prophets it carries the sense of an enemy arriving from beyond the known map.

3Then I will knock the bow out of your left hand and make the arrows fall from your right hand.

3And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.

4You will fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the nations that are with you. I will give you as food to every kind of meat-eating bird and to the wild animals.

4Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.

NoteTo be left unburied and eaten by scavengers was the worst disgrace imaginable for an ancient army, worse than defeat itself. Battlefield taunts across the ancient Near East threaten exactly this.

5You will fall in the open field, because I have spoken, says the Lord GOD.

5Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

6I will send fire on Magog and on those who live safely in the lands along the coast. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

6And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

NoteMagog appears in the list of nations in Genesis 10 as a distant northern people. The word rendered "lands along the coast" is a Hebrew term for the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean, shorthand for the far edges of the known world.

7So I will make my holy name known among my people Israel, and I will no longer let my holy name be treated as common. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.

7So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.

Note"Holy" in Hebrew means set apart from ordinary use. To treat a name as common is the opposite: to handle it as though it were unremarkable. The verb is often translated "profane."

8It is coming, and it will be done, says the Lord GOD. This is the day I spoke about.

8Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

9Then the people who live in the towns of Israel will go out and set the weapons on fire. They will burn the shields, large and small, the bows and arrows, the clubs and the spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel.

9And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years:

NoteAncient shields came in two sizes: a large one covering most of the body, and a small round buckler strapped to the forearm. Bows, spear shafts and clubs were largely wood. Seven years of firewood from discarded weapons is a way of measuring the size of the defeated army.

10They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it in the forests, because they will burn the weapons for fuel. They will take goods from those who took from them and rob those who robbed them, says the Lord GOD.

10So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.

11On that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the Sea. It will block the way of those who pass through. Gog and all his army will be buried there, and the place will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog.

11And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.

Note"The Sea" here is most likely the Dead Sea. Hamon-gog means "the horde of Gog", the mass burial ground is named after the army buried in it. The Hebrew of the line about blocking the way is uncertain: it may mean the graves obstruct the travelers' route, or that passers-by must stop their noses against the stench.

12For seven months the people of Israel will be burying them, in order to make the land clean again.

12And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.

NoteUnder Israelite law a dead body made anything near it ritually unclean, and unburied corpses defiled the land itself (Numbers 19). The seven-month burial detail is about restoring the land to usable, clean condition, not about respect for the dead.

13All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them honor on the day I show my glory, says the Lord GOD.

13Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.

14Men will be given this as steady work: to travel through the land and bury the invaders still lying on the ground, so the land is made clean. At the end of the seven months they will begin their search.

14And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.

15As these men pass through the land, anyone who sees a human bone will set up a marker beside it. The marker stays until the grave diggers have buried the bone in the Valley of Hamon-gog.

15And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamongog.

NoteThe marker warns others away: touching a corpse or even a human bone made a person ritually unclean for seven days, so the bone is flagged and left for the specialist burial crews.

16A city there will also be named Hamonah. In this way they will make the land clean.

16And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.

NoteHamonah means "horde", the city takes its name from the defeated army buried nearby, as the valley does in verse 11.

17And you, son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: Call out to every kind of bird and to every wild animal: Gather and come. Come together from every side to the sacrifice I am preparing for you, a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, where you will eat flesh and drink blood.

17And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.

NoteAt an ordinary sacrifice the animal is killed and the worshipers eat the meat. Here the language is deliberately inverted: the birds and beasts are the invited guests, and the human army is the animal on the table.

18You will eat the flesh of strong men and drink the blood of the rulers of the earth, as if they were rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fattened animals of Bashan.

18Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.

NoteBashan was the fertile upland plateau east of the Sea of Galilee, proverbial in Israel for its prime cattle and sheep, the ancient equivalent of naming a region famous for its beef.

19At the sacrifice I am preparing for you, you will eat fat until you are full and drink blood until you are drunk.

19And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.

NoteIsraelite law flatly forbade consuming blood (Leviticus 17). The image of drinking blood until drunk would have struck the first hearers as shocking rather than merely gruesome.

20At my table you will eat your fill of horses and chariots with their riders, of strong men and fighting men of every kind, says the Lord GOD.

20Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.

21I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the judgment I carry out and the hand I lay on them.

21And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.

22From that day on, the people of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God.

22So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.

23And the nations will know that the people of Israel were taken away as captives because of their sin, because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword.

23And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword.

Note"To hide one's face" is a standard Hebrew idiom for withdrawing favor and protection, turning away, leaving someone to their own devices. It is not about literal concealment.

24I dealt with them as their uncleanness and their wrongdoing deserved, and I hid my face from them.

24According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them.

25So this is what the Lord GOD says: Now I will bring the people of Jacob back from captivity and show mercy to all the people of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name.

25Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;

Note"Jealous" is used here in its older, wider sense: fiercely protective of what belongs to you, guarding your own reputation. It does not mean envy.

26They will carry the shame of all the ways they were unfaithful to me, when they live safely in their own land with no one to make them afraid.

26After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.

NoteThe Hebrew verb here can mean either "bear" (carry the shame) or "forget" it, and translations split between the two; the rendering keeps one reading, but the sense of the original is genuinely disputed.

27When I have brought them back from the other peoples and gathered them out of the lands of their enemies, I will show that I am holy through them, where many nations can see it.

27When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations;

NoteTo "show that I am holy" translates a verb meaning to be shown as set apart and distinct, God's character being made visible to onlookers through what happens to Israel.

28Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then gathered them back to their own land, leaving none of them behind.

28Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there.

29I will no longer hide my face from them, because I have poured out my Spirit on the people of Israel, says the Lord GOD.

29Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.

Note"Pour out" is the language used of liquids, water, or oil poured over a person's head. The image is of an unstinting outpouring rather than a measured portion.