Ezekiel 39:10

And 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: THEY THAT DWELL IN THE CITIES OF ISRAEL SHALL GO FORTH, AND SHALL SET ON FIRE AND BURN THE WEAPONS. The burning of the foe's weapons implies that nothing belonging to them should be left to pollute the land. The seven years (seven being the sacred number) spent on this work implies the completeness of the cleansing, and the people's zeal for purity. How different from the ancient Israelites, who left not merely the arms, but the pagan themselves, to remain among them! (Fairbairn); (); so the pagan among them became, by God's judicial appointment, "as thorns in Israel's sides, and thei...

1-10 The Lord will make the most careless and hardened transgressors know his holy name, either by his righteous anger, or by the riches of his mercy and grace. The weapons formed against Zion shall not prosper. Though this prophecy is to be fulfilled in the latter days, it is certain. From the language used, it seems that the army of Gog will be destroyed by miracle....

BURN THEM WITH FIRE - Or, “kindle fire with them;” or, as in the margin. The weapons of the army left on the field of battle shall be so numerous as to supply fuel for the people of the land for seven years. Seven was a number connected with cleansing after contact with the dead (Numbers 19:11 ff), and this purification of the land by the clearance of paganish spoils was a holy work (compare Ezekiel 39:12)....

EXPOSITION Of the two main divisions of this chapter, the first (Ezekiel 39:1) depicts the greatness of the overthrow of Gog; the second (Ezekiel 39:21) records the impression made by it upon Both Israel and the heathen, and adds a closing promise to the former. EZEKIEL 39:1 In the first main division Ezekiel repeats the substance of what has already been advanced concerning the defeat of Gog (verses 1-8), after which he strives to represent its completeness (verses 9-20), by setting forth (1) the immense quantity of spoil Israel should obtain from the fallen foe (verses 9, 10). (2) the length of time it should take Israel t

SO THAT THEY SHALL TAKE NO WOOD OUT OF THE FIELD,.... During that seven years; or they shall have no need to do so, as the Syriac version; having a sufficiency of armour: NEITHER CUT DOWN ANY OUT OF THE FOREST: out of the forest of Lebanon, or any other, where they used to fetch wood for their necessary uses; but so great a quantity of armour shall now be brought home by them to their houses, that they should have no need to be at the trouble and expense of fetching wood from the forests: FOR THEY SHALL BURN THE WEAPONS WITH FIRE; the reason of which will be, because they will have no occasion for them hereafter; for when this battle is over, which seems to be the same with that at Armageddon, there will be an entire destruction of all the enemies of Christ and his church; the world will be cleared of them, and there will be war no more, and so no more use of weapons; this will be the...

Ezekiel 38:1; Ezekiel 39:1. There will be at that time of restoration a great and final invasion of the land of Israel. Gog and Magog will invade the land “that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people.” The invaders come “against the mountains of Israel which have always been waste; but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely, all of them.” In Ezekiel 38:11, the evil purpose of the invader is made known. From all this we learn that the invasion takes place at the time when the Lord has brought back His people and resumed His relationship with the remnant of Israel. The invasion will happen some time after the beastly empire with its beast head, the revived Roman e

GOG'S DESTRUCTION AND BURIAL. This chapter does little more than repeat, with variations, the message of the last. The slain hordes lie thick upon Israel's mountains and fields, to be devoured by beasts and birds. Yahweh, whose power is not limited to His own land, will send His destructive fire upon the enemy's land and his islands in the Black (or Mediterranean?) Sea. This is the great day (Ezekiel 39:8) of which the prophets have spoken, and its doings will convince the world of the uniqueness of Israel's God. So great would be the destruction that Israel, which was poor in wood, would find weapons enough of the invaders to burn as fuel for seven years. Thus the spoilers would be spoiled a precious thought to later Judaism, as we see from the sanguinary and vindictive temper of the Book of Esther....

ROB. make. prey....

_burn the weapons_ MAKE FIRE WITH the weapons. Such abundance of fuel shall the weapons supply, that firewood shall neither be gathered in the field nor cut down out of the forests....

B. The Completeness of the Destruction 39:9-20 TRANSLATION (9) And the inhabitants of the cities of Israel shall go out, and they shall burn the weapons and make fuel of them, even the shields, bucklers, bows, arrows, hand staves, and spears; and they shall make fires of them seven years. (10) And they shall not take wood from the field, nor shall they cut down any out of the woods, for they shall make fires of the weapons; and they shall take spoil of those who spoiled them, and they shall plunder those who plundered them (oracle of the Lord GOD). (11) And it shall come to pass in that day I will give to God a place there for burial in Israel, the valley of those who pass through on the east of the sea; and it shall stop those who pass through; and they shall bury there God and all his multitude; and they shall call it the valley of Hamon-gog. (12) In order to cleanse the land, the hou...