---
title: "Clarke"
description: "destruction of the world by fire, and the general judgment. NOTES ON CHAP. XXXIX Verse Ezekiel 39:2. And leave but the sixth part of thee — The margin has"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/ezekiel/39"
---

*destruction of the world by fire, and the general judgment.*
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXIX

Verse [Ezekiel 39:2](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/2). ***And leave but the sixth part of thee*** — The margin has, *strike thee with six plagues*; or, *draw thee back with a hook of* *six teeth*.

Verse [Ezekiel 39:3](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/3). ***I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand*** — The *Persians* whom Antiochus had in his army, [Ezekiel 38:5](../../../kjv/ezekiel/38/5), were famous as *archers*, and they may be intended here. The *bow* is held by the *left hand*; the *arrow* is pulled and discharged by the *right*.

Verse [Ezekiel 39:6](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/6). ***I will send a fire on Magog*** — On Syria. I will destroy the Syrian troops.
***And among them that dwell carelessly in the isles*** — The auxiliary troops that came to Antiochus from the borders of the Euxine Sea.-*Martin*.

Verse [Ezekiel 39:7](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/7). ***In the midst of my people Israel*** — This defeat of Gog is to be in Israel: and it was there according to this prophecy, that the immense army of Antiochus was so completely defeated.
***And I will not let them pollute my holy name any more*** — See on *1Macc 1:11*, c., how Antiochus had *profaned the temple, insulted* *Jehovah and his worship*, &c. God permitted that as a scourge to his disobedient people but now the scourger shall be scourged, and he shall *pollute the sanctuary no more*.

Verse [Ezekiel 39:9](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/9). ***And shall set on fire - the weapons*** — The Israelites shall make bonfires and fuel of the weapons, tents, c., which the defeated Syrians shall leave behind them, as expressive of the joy which they shall feel for the destruction of their enemies and to keep up, in their *culinary consumption*, the memory of this great event.
***They shall burn them with fire seven years*** — These may be *figurative* expressions, after the manner of the Asiatics, whose language abounds with such descriptions. They occur every where in the prophets. As to the number *seven*, it is only a certain for an indeterminate number. But as the slaughter was great, and the *bows, arrows, quivers, shields, bucklers, handstaves*, and *spears* were in vast multitudes, it must have taken a long time to gather them up in the different parts of the *fields* of battle, and the *roads* in which the Syrians had *retreated*, throwing away their *arms* as they proceeded; so there might have been a long time employed in collecting and burning them. And as all seem to have been doomed to the fire, there might have been some found at different intervals and burned, during the *seven years* here mentioned. *Mariana*, in his History of Spain, lib. xi., c. 24, says, that after the Spaniards had given that signal overthrow to the Saracens, A.D. 1212, they found such a vast quantity of lances, javelins, and such like, that they served them for *four* *years* for fuel. And probably these instruments obtained by the Israelites were used in general for *culinary firewood*, and might *literally* have served them for *seven years*; so that during that time *they should take no wood out of the fields, nor out of the* *forests* for the purpose of *fuel*, [Ezekiel 39:10](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/10).

Verse [Ezekiel 39:11](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/11). ***The valley of the passengers on the east of the sea*** — That is, of *Gennesareth*, according to the *Targum*. The valley near this lake or sea is called *the Valley of the Passengers*, because it was a great road by which the merchants and traders from Syria and other eastern countries went into Egypt; see [Genesis 37:17](../../../kjv/genesis/37/17); [Genesis 37:25](../../../kjv/genesis/37/25). See *Calmet* here.
***There shall they bury Gog and all his multitude*** — Some read, "There shall they bury Gog, that is, all his multitude." Not Gog, or Antiochus himself, for he was not in this battle; but his *generals, captains*, and *soldiers*, by whom he was represented. As to *Hamon-gog*, we know no valley of this name but here. But we may understand the words thus: the place where this great slaughter was, and where the multitudes of the slain were buried, might be better called *Hamon-gog*, the *valley of the multitude of God*, than the *valley of passengers*; for so great was the carnage there, that the way of the passengers shall be stopped by it. See the text.

Verse [Ezekiel 39:12](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/12). ***And seven months*** — It shall require a long time to bury the dead. This is another figurative expression; which, however, may admit of a good deal of *literal* meaning. Many of the Syrian soldiers had secreted themselves in different places during the pursuit after the battle, where they died of their wounds, of hunger, and of fatigue; so that they were not all found and buried till *seven months* after the defeat of the Syrian army. This slow process of burying is distinctly related in the three following verses, and extended even to a *bone*, [Ezekiel 39:15](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/15); which, when it was found by a passenger, the place was marked, that the buriers might see and *inter* it. *Seven months* was little time enough for all this work; and in that country putrescency does not easily take place: the scorching winds serving to desiccate the flesh, and preserve it from decomposition.

Verse [Ezekiel 39:17](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/17). ***Gather yourselves - to my sacrifice*** — This is an allusion to a custom common in the east: when a sacrifice is made, the friends and neighbours of the party sacrificing are invited to come and feast on the sacrifice.

Verse [Ezekiel 39:18](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/18). ***Ye shall - drink the blood of the princes of the earth*** — I need not mention the custom of the Scandinavians: they were accustomed to drink the blood of their enemies out of the skulls of the dead. But this is spoken of *fowls* and *beasts* here-*rams,* *lambs*, and *goats*. The feast shall be as grateful and as plenteous to the *fowls* and *beasts*, as one made of the above animals, the fattest and best of their kind, (because fed in the fertile fields of Bashan,) would be to the guests of him who makes a sacrifice.

Verse [Ezekiel 39:19](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/19). ***And ye shall eat fat - and drink blood*** — *Who* shall eat and drink, c.? Not the *Jews*: though *Voltaire* says they ate *human* *flesh*, and are invited here by the prophet to *eat the flesh and* *drink the blood of their enemies* which is a most unprincipled falsehood. It is the *fowls* and the *beasts* that God invites, [Ezekiel 39:17](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/17): "Speak to every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, assemble yourselves-that ye may eat flesh and drink blood;" nor are the persons altered in all these verses, [Ezekiel 39:17-20](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/17-20): so the assertion of *Voltaire* is either through *brutish ignorance* or *Satanic malice*.

Verse [Ezekiel 39:25](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/25). ***Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob*** — Both *they* and the *heathen* shall know that it was for their iniquity that I gave them into the hands of their enemies: and now I will redeem them from those hands in such a way as to prove that I am a *merciful God*, as well as a *just God*.

Verse [Ezekiel 39:26](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/26). ***After that they have borne their shame*** — After they shall have borne the *punishment* due to a line of conduct which is their *shame* and reproach, viz. *idolatry*.

Verse [Ezekiel 39:27](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/27). ***When I have - gathered them*** — Antiochus had before captured many of the Jews, and sold them for *slaves*; see [Daniel 11:33](../../../kjv/daniel/11/33).

Verse [Ezekiel 39:28](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/28). ***And have left none of then any more there.*** — All that chose had liberty to return; but many remained behind. This promise may therefore refer to a *greater restoration*, when not a Jew shall be left behind. This, the next verse intimates, will be in the *Gospel dispensation*.

Verse [Ezekiel 39:29](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/29). ***For I have poured out my Spirit*** — That is, I will pour out my Spirit; see the notes on [Ezekiel 36:25-29](../../../kjv/ezekiel/36/25-29), where this subject is largely considered. This *Spirit* is to enlighten, quicken, purify, and cleanse their hearts; so that, being completely changed, they shall become God's people, and be a praise in the earth. Now, they are a proverb of reproach; then, they shall be eminently distinguished.

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