Ezekiel Chapter 39 verse 9 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerses 9, 10 set forth as the first proof of the greatness of Gog's overthrow the immense booty in the shape of weapons of war which should be obtained by the inhabitants of the cities of Israel. So huge should be the quantity of weapons left behind by the slain, that the Israelites should burn them with fire seven years. This burning of the weapons has been explained by Havernick, on the ground that weapons of war, as incompatible with Messianic times, should be no more required (cf. Isaiah 2:4); by Ewald, as in accordance with the custom of the Hebrews (Isaiah 9:5) and other ancient peoples (Livy, 38:23; Virgil, 'AEneid,' 8:562); by Hitzig and Smend, as prompted by the consideration that Israel, for whom Jehovah had fought, should have no further need of weapons; by Schroder, as indicating that for Israel these warlike instruments should then so completely lose their power to terrify that they might be looked upon simply as so much firewood; and by Keil, as designed to annihilate the enemy and remove every trace of him. Kliefoth appears nearest the mark, in suggesting that the emphasis lies upon the length of time the burning should continue; and that this was intended, by conveying an idea of the vastness of the spoil, to represent the thoroughness of Gog's destruction and of Israel's deliverance. That the whole delineation is symbolical appears from the number of years the weapons are said to serve for fuel, viz. seven, and from the character of the weapons themselves, which, if not entirely wooden, were at least all combustible. Of the "armor" generally (נֶשֶׁק, "something joined," from a root signifying "to join") the pieces mentioned - the shields and the bucklers (see Ezekiel 38:4), the bows and arrows (see ver. 3), the hand-staves, or, javelins (margin), perhaps, as Hitzig and Smend suggest, the staff with which a horseman strikes his beast (see Numbers 22:27), and the spears - were mostly composed of timber. When all should have been given to the flames, it would then appear that on their late owners the lex talionis had worked out its literal avengement, that they who had intended to despoil Israel were themselves spoiled; and they who hoped to plunder Israel were themselves plundered (comp. Isaiah 17:14).

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(9) Shall burn them with fire seven years.--The representation of this and the following verse, that the weapons of the army of Gog shall furnish the whole nation of Israel with fuel for seven years, cannot, of course, be understood literally, and seems to have been inserted by the prophet to show that we are to look for the meaning of his prophecy beyond any literal event of earthly warfare.Ezekiel 39:11-16 again present the magnitude of the attack upon the Church by describing the burial of the host after it is slain. The language, if it could be supposed it was meant to be literally understood, would be even more extravagant than that of Ezekiel 39:9-10. The whole nation of Israel is represented as engaged for seven months in burying the bodies (Ezekiel 39:12-13); after this an indefinite time is to be occupied by one corps of men appointed to search the land for still remaining bones, and by another who are to bury them.