Bible Commentaries

And I will turn thee back, ^a and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:

(a) Or, destroy you with six plagues, as in (Ezekiel 38:22).

Thou ^b shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy troops, and the people that [are] with thee: I will give thee to the ravenous birds of every sort, and [to] the beasts of the field to be devoured.

(b) Meaning that by the virtue of God's word the enemy will be destroyed wherever he assails his Church.

And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell securely in the ^c isles: and they shall know that I [am] the LORD.

(c) That is, among all nations where the enemies of my people dwell, no matter how separate they seem.

Behold, ^d it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this [is] the day of which I have spoken.

(d) That is, this plague is fully determined in my counsel and cannot be changed.

And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall ^e go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the javelins, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years:

(e) After this destruction the Church will have great peace and tranquillity and burn all their weapons because they will no more fear the enemies. This chiefly refers to the accomplishment of Christ's kingdom when by their head Christ all enemies will be overcome.

And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will give to Gog ^f a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the travellers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the ^g [noses] of the travellers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call [it] The valley of Hamongog.

(f) Which declares that the enemies will have a horrible fall.

(g) For the stink of the carcasses.

^h And seven months shall the house of Israel be in burying them, that they may cleanse the land.

(h) Meaning a long time.

And they shall set apart men for [the] continual task of passing through the ⁱ land to bury with the travellers those that remain upon the face of the land, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.

(i) Partly that the holy land should not be polluted and partly for the compassion that the children of God have even on their enemies.

And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak to every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; ^k gather yourselves on every side 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.

(k) By which he signifies the horrible destruction that would come on the enemies of his Church.

And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for ^l their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore I hid my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so they all fell by the sword.

(l) The heathen will know that they did not overcome my people by their strength, neither yet by the weakness of my arm, but that this was for my people's sins.