To cleanse the holy land from the defilement caused by the corpses of these heathen hordes, the common people were to spend seven months in collecting and burying them, in a place appointed for that purpose east of the Dead Sea; and after that, to ensure the absolute holiness of the land, permanent officials were to be appointed to go through it scrupulously marking every spot where even a bone was found that it might be buried in the proper place, and the land cleansed of all defilement. (In Ezekiel 39:11 after place add, with LXX, of renown. For of them that pass through, read with different pointing of the Abarim, i.e. some valley at the N.E. corner of the Dead Sea. For it shall stop, etc. we should perhaps read, and they the Israelites shall close (the mouth of) the valley. Hamon means multitude. In Ezekiel 39:14 omit them that pass through. The first half of Ezekiel 39:16 is obscure.)

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