Commentary on the Old Testament Volume 2-4, Biblical commentary 7 · Ezekiel · Chapter 39
CHAP. XXXIX.
IN this Chap. the destruction of the Jews enemies, the kings of Syria, who V. 1.persecuted them so cruelly, is further amplified. For having begun, as he did chap. 38. to threaten this king by the name of Gog, he varyeth only in V. 2.this, that he saith, I will leave but the sixth part of thee, and I will cause thee to come up from the North parts. Jun. I will bring thee back, drawing thee with a se…ry Iunius.hook, that is, with an hook, which is six fold, being called an barpagus, an iron instrument, wherewith a bucket is drawn out of a well, or a ship is laid hold upon and pulled according to Livy l. 8. de Punico bello, the word here used being nothing else but a further expression of the hook before spoken of Ch. 38. 4. Heb. it is foreign, Sextabo te, as the Latins use sometimes the word decimare, to destroy enemies or rebels taken every tenth man, so here he seemeth to mean a great destruction to be brought upon the forces of Gog, as our translators thought, not going by the sixth man in slaying, but slaying all but the sixth, yet that of Junius stands best with reason, because it is not likely, that the Lord meant, that in destroying Gog and his armies he would spare any, but make a full end of them, as against other enemies of his people he had formerly threatened to destroy them utterly as Sodom, not leaving a man of them.
And this prophesie of great troubles to come to the Jews, and then of deliverance herefrom by judging their enemies, was very useful for them, that when they should afterwards be thus tryed, they might not despaire, or be discomforted, as thinking, that all promises of happiness after their deliverance out of captivity would now come to nought, knowing by that which is here said, that although their sufferings should be great, yet they should not be but by divine dispensation, and that they should in a short time be delivered from them againe.
Thou shalt fall upon the mountaines of Israel, thou and all thy bands, that is, when thou V. 4.shalt with thy forces be attempting the destruction of Judea, which is full of mountaines, thou shalt be cut off, and those forces of thine, which thou shalt send thither shall be overthrown and slaine, and lye unburyed as meat for the beasts of the field and fowles of the aire, as was fulfilled in the time of Judas Maccabaeus, and the king Antiochus himself was smitten with a grievous disease, of which he dyed in extream torment, as is shewed in the history of the Maccabees, the Tyrant being brought hereby to confess, that this judgement came upon him for that which he did against Gods people the Jews.
And I will send a fire on Magog, and them that dwel carelesly in the Isles: this, saith Junius, was fulfilled, when the Romans came against Syria being let in by V. 6.Attalus a king in Asia minor, who being offended with Demetrius the king of Syria made the Romans heirs of his kingdom, then they being in league with Junius.the Jews came in their aid and wasted the kingdom of Syria with fire and sword, and this was the fire upon Magog here threatened, and the Isles are mentioned, because that by Japhets posterity, whereof Magog was one, the Islands were inhabited, and so Syria suffering by this fire, it is not to be doubted, but that the Isles belonging thereunto suffered also.
For handstaves which it is said here that they should burn, as also other weapons V. 9. Junius.of war belonging to Gogs forces, Junius hath darts, which are cast with the hand, and he saith, that they should burn these 7. yeers, that is, a long time, and to shew what abundance of them there were, he addeth v. 10. that they should not cut down any wood to burn in this time, there should be such a plentiful supply of these to make them fires, which cannot be taken as V. 10.spoken otherwise then hyperbolically.
I will give to Gog graves in the land of Israel, from hence to v. 16. it is V. 11.shewed, that of the forces of Gog, which should fight against the Jews, some should be buryed, after that they were slaine by Judas Maccabaeus and his brethren, and v. 16. &c. some should lye unburyed, becoming a prey to the beasts and fowls.
For the first the place is assigned, viz. The valley of passengers on the east of the sea, that is, on the other side of Jordan in the land of Gilead, whereby Merchants passed to and fro for traffick, that came from other parts, and this place was by the divine providence appointed, that strangers coming that way might continually see an example or monument of Gods judgements against the Jews enemies, and hereby be warned not once to open their mouths more to speak against and to vilifie them, as they commonly did, because they hated them for their Religion so much differing from others in other countryes of the world. And to express this he saith, they should stop, not their noses, as N. Tr. hath it, but their mouths, as the Hebr. verily hath it. And the very name of the place should be a perpetual remembrance of this, it being for the burials of the Gogites here called Hamon Gog, Gogs multitude. Junius also saith, that there was also another place called the valley of passengers beyond Jordan lying by the lake of Genesareth, which was also by passengers much frequented.
And the house of Israel shall bury them there seven moneths. In these words and V. 12.those following the burying of the slaine Gogites is farther set forth to shew the exceeding great multitude of them, that they should be in burying seven moneths, a very long time for such a business; and to purge the land from all these dead stinking corpses he saith, that buryers should be appointed to look where others going before had set up a mark at a dead bone, that they might follow thither and leave none unburyed. Whereby is also intimated, that even such as were buryed lay first above ground so long, that the beasts of the field and fowles of the aire had come and eate up their flesh, their bones only being left to be buryed.
From v. 17. to the 23. he threateneth such a destruction to the same forces, V. 17. 18, &cthat there shall be flesh, and fat, and blood, enough to fill, and feast all the beasts and fowles round about, in an oratorical manner therefore inviting them to so plentiful a prey.
From henceforth to the end of the chap. it is shewed how manifest it should be made by judgements thus executed upon the enemies of Gods people, that V. 23, 24, &cthey were not formerly given into the hands of the Caldeans, as if God had then quite rejected them, but for their chastisement, and reformation, which being made and continued in he promiseth perpetually to favor and protect them, but they falling againe into sin, as they did before their destruction by the Romans, and that more notoriously then ever before, the Lord did not bind himself by this promise so, but that he might justly root them out againe with more severity then ever, according to the rule of his doings laid down Jer. 18. 10. and as it came to passe at that their fatal overthrow.