Ezekiel 39

Ezekiel 39:1-7

This chapter concludes the prophecy against Gog and Magog. Here is, 1. The superb prediction of their wise deprivation, vers. 1—7. 2. The wellness of that deprivation shows from the burning of their weapons, vers. 8—10. The burying of their fairs, vers. 11—16. And the faelling of the finals upon the dead bodies of those that were unburied, vers. 17—23. 3. God’s gracious purposes in his Israel, in that and his other providences, are declared, and a promise of further mercy be had yet in place for them, vers. 23—29.

1 Chap. 2000, 8. 3 Chap. 2000, 4. 4 On church. 5 On fields then with the plagues, or draw that back with an hook of the torch. Chap. 2000, 4. Chap. 2000, 13. 5 Hain. Some of the truth. 6 PC. howi. 7. Chap. 2000, 27. 8 Hain. Magog. 9 And. From of the land. 10 P. 10. 10. 11 P. 10. 10. 12 P. 10. 10.

1. Therefore, ’thou son of man, prophecy against Gog, and say, Thus faith the Lord GOD, Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Mehech and Tubal. 2. ‘And I will turn thee back, and I leave but the sixth part of thee,’ and will cause thee to come up from the fourth-parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: 3. And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause these arrows to fall out of thy right hand. 4. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: ‘I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every fort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. 5. Thou shalt fall upon the 9 upon field, for I have spoken it, faith the Lord GOD. 6. And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell I carefully in the files, and they shall know

that I am the LORD. 7. So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the holy One in Israel.

When God begins he will make an end; his enemies shall feel his vengeance and perish utterly.

1. He threatens the destruction of Gog and his army, and the desolation of his country. His soldiers, for whom he drained his kingdom, and left but a forth part behind him, shall be disabled from hurling God’s people, and fall upon the mountains of Israel, a prey to every beast and hurl; and, whilst the king with his army miserably perishes there, the fire of God, some consuming judgment, shall devour his country; and even the iftes of his dominion, which promised themselves security from their situation, shall be consumed together: for, when God refteth up to judgment, no place or person is privileged, or may hope for exemption. Nies, (1.) The mightiest armies before God are as easily crushed as the moth. (2.) Whilst the ambitious unjustly labour to uturp the rights of others, God justly punishes them with the loss of what was their own.

2. God will thus make himself known and glorious. His people will prove his power, faithfulness, and grace, signally manifested on their behalf, and be engaged thereby, renouncing all their former idolatries, to cleave to him alone: for nothing tends to separate the heart from he so effectually as the right knowledge of God. And his enemies the heathen shall know him too by these examples of his vengeance, shall fear to provoke his jealousy, nor dare any more to molest his people. Nies, The judgments of God on others should be our warnings.

3. Behold, it is come, and it is done, faith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken. 9. 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 hand-ftaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years: 10. So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests: for they shall burn the weapons with fire, and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, faith the Lord GOD. 11. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea; and it shall stop the nays of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog, and all his multitude, and they shall call it, the valley of Hamon-gog. 12. And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land. 13. Yes, all the people of the land shall bury them, and it shall be to them a crowny, the day that I shall be glorified, faith the Lord GOD. 14. And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land, to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search. 15. And the passengers that pass through the land, when any feth a man’s bone, then shall be set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog. 16. And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah: thus shall they cleanse the land. 17. And thou son of man, Thus faith the Lord GOD, Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, ‘Afferable yourselves and cones, garner yourselves on every tide to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. 18. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them furlings of fashion. 19. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. 20. Thus ye shall be filled at my table with berths and charlons, with mighty men, and with all men of war, faith the Lord GOD. 21. And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall be my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. 22. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God, from that day and forward.

Ezekiel 39:8-22

What God hath spoken is as sure as if it were already accomplished, whether it be promise or threatening. It is come, it is done: for such realises both as present.

By Before Christ (2)

By three things the dreadful destruction of the army of God is represented.

1. By the vast quantity of weapons of war which, among other spoil, should be collected, and furnish the people of Israel with lost during seven years; and every chip they burned, would serve to remind them of God’s mercy, and to awaken their gratitude.

2. By the length of time which it will take to bury the dead, and the numbers employed in the service. The whole house of Israel, affixed by the passengers, who would willingly labour to remove to great a nuisance, v. 11. shall be no less than seven months employed in cleaning the land, and collecting the bodies in their burying-place, the valley of passengers, on the east of the sea, of the dead sea, or the sea of Thoria; a great thoroughfare from Syria to Egypt, which shall from this event, receive a new name, and be called the valley of Hamon-gay, and the city near thereunto Hamonah, alluding to the multitudes there buried. And it shall be a renown to Israel in that day, when God shall be glorified; such an astonishing influence of the divine interposition in their favour shall make them respected, and their humanity to the dead redound greatly to their honour. And at the seventh month’s end, when the multitudes that fell together are covered in the earth, certain persons shall be appointed to go through the land, and bury the scattered corpses, whilst every transfer who passes by, when he sees a bone, shall set up a mark for the notice of the teachers appointed, until the land he thoroughly cleansed. Note, (1.) When our outfits are offended with the putrefaction of a corpse, we should remember the sin which hath made these bodies so vile. (2.) They who have experienced great national mercies, should unite in their labour to cleanse their land from every pollution of sin, and to this every lover of his country will gladly lend a helping hand. (3.) To advance God’s glory, is Israel’s great renown.

3. There will be enough for every bird and beall to feed upon, and they are commanded to come and devour the Sain, sacrificed to divine justice. Corpse enough there will be, not merely for a meal, but to fatten them; and this not only of the common soldiers, but of the mighty, and the princes of the earth, with their bursts and chariots, fallen in one promiscuous ruin.

Thus God will make the heathen to see and observe his judgments against the enemies of his people, and will advance his own great glory thereby: whilst the house of Israel shall exult in his salvation, and receive fresh confirmation of God’s care and love, engaging their confidence in him from that day forward, even for ever. Let God’s Israel then to the end of time trust in the Lord for ever, and be assured he will never disappoint their expectations.

23. ¶ And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies; so left they all by the sword. 24. According to their uncleanness, and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them. 25. Therefore thus faith the Lord GOD, Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name: 26. After that they have born their shame, and all their trespasses, whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwell safely in their land, and none made them afraid. 27. When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; 28. Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. 29. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, faith the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 39:23-29

Much had the people of God suffered from the blasphemies of their enemies, much under the heavy hand of God upon them in afflictions, but now he will deliver them for ever out of all their troubles.

1. The heathen shall be silenced, and convinced of God’s designs in the sufferings of his people. They thought the captivity of Israel was owing to their weakness, or the inability of their God to protect them, but by this amazing exertion of divine power on their behalf, they shall see that the only cause of their sufferings was their sin, for which they were given into their enemies lands, v. 23. and that God dealt with them according to their transgressions, in all the evils he brought upon them. So that what he did was with a view to his own glory, visiting their iniquity with a rod; yet, as by the event appeared, not taking his loving kindness from them, nor suffering his truth to fail, nor wanting power to recover and re-

VOL. II.

fore them to their former splendor, when they had fawarded before Christ sufficiently under his corrections.

2. God’s own people shall know his designs of grace towards them, notwithstanding all they have suffered. Jealous for his own honour, which the heathen had reproached, he will magnify himself in Israel’s deliverance, v. 25. and since they have been their shame, and all their trespasses, a sufficient measure of punishment for them, and testified untrigued repentance for their provocations, aggravated by the mercies, peace, and comforts they had enjoyed, when they dwell safely in their land, and none made them afraid, v. 26. Therefore he will now turn his hand to recover them from their deforctions, and bring them to their own land; and hereby God will be sanctified to the sight of many nations, who will own his dispositions towards his Israel to have been righteous, just, and good. And they themselves, whilst they acknowledge God’s justice in their sufferings, shall experience his rich grace in their labyrinths, and know him to be their God, their covenant God, their God for ever and ever, v. 28. for the light of his countenance shall no more be hid from them, the halters of his favour be no more suspended, but he will pour out his Spirit upon them, that they shall not depart from him. Note, (1.) True penitents are willing to bear their shame, and own their sufferings less than their iniquities deserve. (2.) When by divine grace we return to God, he will return to us, and lift up again upon us the light of his countenance.