What does Ezechiel Chapter 39 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Gog’s fall precedes weapons burning and burial. Seven-year fuel and seven-month burial remain distinct. Captivity and gathering are explained through Israel’s conduct and mercy.

Chapter breakdown

Ezechiel 39 continues the word against Gog, brought from the north onto Israel's mountains. The Lord breaks his bow in his left hand and makes arrows fall from his right. Fallen in field and mountains, Gog and his multitude become food for birds and beasts. Fire reaches Magog and confident island inhabitants; the holy name will no longer be profaned, and the announced day comes as the Lord has declared.

Israel's city inhabitants burn shields, bucklers, bows, arrows, handstaves and pikes for seven years, taking no forest wood and spoiling former spoilers. The text does not specify that every weapon is wooden. Gog's grave is the valley of passengers east of the sea, causing astonishment to passersby, not expressly obstructing their passage or naming the Dead Sea. All the land's people bury the multitude for seven months to cleanse the land, on the day the Lord is glorified. Appointed continual searchers begin seeking after those seven months; a passerby finding a bone erects a sign until buriers carry it to the valley. The city is called Amona. Seven months of burial must remain distinct from seven years of fuel.

Birds and beasts are invited to a great victim on Israel's mountains: flesh of the mighty and blood of princes, rams, lambs, goats and bulls. Fat fills them and blood makes them drunk; horses, horsemen and men of war supply the table. Nations see judgment and Israel recognizes the Lord. Captivity is attributed to iniquity and forsaking him, after which his hidden face and delivery to enemies bring the sword.

Mercy restores Jacob's captivity and honors the holy name. Israel bears confusion and transgressions when dwelling securely without fear. Gathered from enemies' lands, with none left behind, the people know their God. His face is hidden no more because his spirit is poured out. This promise does not itself provide a Pentecost chronology, ecological doctrine or proof that every stated period is merely symbolic.

The story inside

Opening: Gog’s fall precedes weapons burning and burial. Development: Seven-year fuel and seven-month burial remain distinct. Conclusion: Captivity and gathering are explained through Israel’s conduct and mercy.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Gog’s fall precedes weapons burning and burial.
2
Seven-year fuel and seven-month burial remain distinct.
3
Captivity and gathering are explained through Israel’s conduct and mercy.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 95564–95578
39:1. And thou, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Mosoch and Thubal. 39:2. And I will turn thee round, and I will lead thee out, and will make thee go up from the northern parts: and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel. 39:3. And I will break thy bow in thy left hand, and I will cause thy arrows to fall out of thy right hand. 39:4. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy bands, and thy nations that are with thee: I have given thee to the wild beasts, to the birds, and to every fowl, and to the beasts of the earth to be devoured.
Lines 95593–95601
39:9. And the inhabitants shall go forth of the cities of Israel, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, the shields, and the spears, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves and the pikes: and they shall burn them with fire seven years. 39:10. And they shall not bring wood out of the countries, nor cut down out of the forests: for they shall burn the weapons with fire, and shall make a prey of them to whom they had been a prey, and they shall rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord God.
Lines 95603–95618
39:11. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give Gog a noted place for a sepulchre in Israel: the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea, which shall cause astonishment in them that pass by: and there shall they bury Gog, and all his multitude, and it shall be called the valley of the multitude of Gog. 39:12. And the house of Israel shall bury them for seven months to cleanse the land. 39:13. And all the people of the land shall bury him, and it shall be unto them a noted day, wherein I was glorified, saith the Lord God. 39:14. And they shall appoint men to go continually about the land, to bury and to seek out them that were remaining upon the face of the earth, that they may cleanse it: and after seven months they shall begin to seek.
Lines 95627–95641
39:17. And thou, O son of man, saith the Lord God, say to every fowl, and to all the birds, and to all the beasts of the field: Assemble yourselves, make haste, come together from every side to my victim, which I slay for you, a great victim upon the mountains of Israel: to eat flesh, and drink blood. 39:18. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and you shall drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, and of lambs, and of he goats, and bullocks, and of all that are well fed and fat. 39:19. And you shall eat the fat till you be full, and shall drink blood till you be drunk of the victim which I shall slay for you. 39:20. And you shall be filled at my table with horses, and mighty horsemen, and all the men of war, saith the Lord God.
Lines 95650–95656
39:23. And the nations shall know that the house of Israel were made captives for their iniquity, because they forsook me, and I hid my face from them: and I delivered them into the hands of their enemies, and they fell all by the sword. 39:24. I have dealt with them according to their uncleanness, and wickedness, and hid my face from them.
Lines 95658–95675
39:25. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Now will I bring back the captivity of Jacob, and will have mercy on all the house of Israel and I will be jealous for my holy name. 39:26. And they shall bear their confusion, and all the transgressions wherewith they have transgressed against me, when they shall dwell in their land securely fearing no man: 39:27. And I shall have brought them back from among the nations, and shall have gathered them together out of the lands of their enemies, and shall be sanctified in them, in the sight of many nations. 39:28. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, because I caused them to be carried away among the nations; and I have gathered them together unto their own land, and have not left any of them there. 39:29. And I will hide my face no more from them, for I have poured out my spirit upon all the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.