Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 39:11
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 [noses] of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call [it] The valley of Hamon-gog.
11. Gog’s burial place shall be east of the Dead Sea.
a place there of graves ] a place for a grave, lit. a place where a grave may be. For “there” LXX. reads name a place of renown (name), a grave in Israel.
valley of the passengers ] In Eze 39:14-15 the word is used of those appointed to go through the land in search of the scattered bones. The term cannot have that sense here. Ew. conjectured that it was a term applied to the hosts of Gog, the invaders, from their overflowing the country (Isa 8:8). The reading of Eze 39:14, however, which would be the strongest support of this view, is doubtful. The expression is probably a proper name; the “valley of the passers through” may have been so named as the usual route of communication between the east and west of the sea. Others by altering the points read “the (or, a) valley of Abarim” (Hitz. Corn.).
shall stop the noses] it shall stop them that pass through (or, the passengers). The valley shall be filled up with the graves of the innumerable hosts of Gog, so that the way of passers through shall be barred. A.V. has no probability. Neither LXX. nor Syr. read the words “those that pass through;” the former renders: and they shall build up the mouth of the valley round about.
Hamon-gog ] i.e. Gog’s multitude.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The prophet pictures to himself some imaginary valley (compare Zec 14:5) at the east of the sea, the Dead Sea, a place frightful in its physical character, and admonitory of past judgments. He calls it the valley of the passengers (or, passers-by), because they who there lie buried were but as a passing cloud. In Eze 39:11-15 there is a play upon words – there were passengers to be buried, passengers to walk over their graves, passengers to bury them; (or, a play upon the treble meaning of passing in (invading), passing by, and passing through.)
Stop the noses – The word thus rendered occurs only once more in Scripture Deu 25:4 where it is rendered muzzle. See Isa 34:3.
Hamon-gog – See the margin, compare Eze 39:16.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 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 Ge 37:17; Ge 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
At that day; when God shall have destroyed this prince, and his formidable army.
Give unto Gog; and to many of those who were with him, for some were given to the birds and beasts to be devoured, Eze 39:4.
A place there of graves: beside many other reasons for burying these slaughtered multitudes, the humanity that religion is full of would guide the Jews to it, and God tells us that Gog shall have a grave in Israel. He came to take possession, and so he shall, but not as he purposed and hoped, but as God intended; Gog shall possess his house of darkness in that land which he invaded to make a prey of. He shall have one place there, a grave, as the Hebrew.
The valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: this valley hath here its name and situation; the name from the frequent travels of passengers through it from Egypt and Arabia Felix into the more northern parts, and from these again into Egypt and Arabia. By its situation it is on the east side of the Dead Sea, to distinguish it from the valley that is on this side Jordan westward, in which is Dothan. Now in this valley did the Jews discomfit the Ammonites, Moabites, Tyrians, and Sidonians, 1Ma 5. This might be a type, or firstfruits, and assurance of this great victory, but no more; for this was of a few against a few, and in this fight of some but few fell, &c.
It shall stop the noses; the stink of the putrefying carcasses should make travellers stop their noses, offended with the ill smells.
There shall they bury; partly in doing the office of humanity, though to dead enemies; and let their enemies live, who would not (for want of others) be so civil to them when dead; but chiefly to remove the nuisance of eye and nose, and to prevent diseases, that rise many times from such smells.
Gog: this prince, whoever it is, shall there fall, and be buried with
his multitude. They shall call it: this shall give name to the valley, which is to be called
The valley of Hamon-gog: which appellation I do not know to be given to any valley as yet, probably because this prophecy is not yet fully accomplished.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. place . . . of gravesGogfound only a grave where he had expected the spoils of conquest.
valleySo vast were tobe the masses that nothing but a deep valley would suffice for theircorpses.
the passengers on the east ofthe seathose travelling on the high road, east of the DeadSea, from Syria to Petra and Egypt. The publicity of the road wouldcause many to observe God’s judgments, as the stench (as EnglishVersion translates) or the multitude of graves (as HENDERSONtranslates, “it shall stop the passengers“) wouldarrest the attention of passers-by. Their grave would be close tothat of their ancient prototypes, Sodom and Gomorrah in the Dead Sea,both alike being signal instances of God’s judgments.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it shall come to pass in that day,…. When this destruction of the army of Gog shall be made:
that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel; or, “a place there, a grave in Israel” b; he that thought to have subdued the whole land, and taken possession of it, shall have no more of it than just a place for a grave, to be buried in; a place fit for a grave, as the Targum; and where that will be is next observed: “the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea”; a valley through which travellers used to pass from Syria, Babylon, and other places, to Egypt and Arabia Felix, which lay east of the sea; not the Mediterranean sea, which lies west of Judea; but either the Dead sea, the sea of Sodom, a sulphurous lake, to which there may be an allusion,
Re 19:20 or the sea of Chinnereth, or Genesareth, as the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi; the same with the sea or lake of Tiberias and Galilee, mentioned in the New Testament; which sense is approved of by Gussetius c; where was a passage from the land of Canaan to the east of the same sea. Calmet d thinks it stands for the great road at the foot of Mount Carmel, to go from Judea, Egypt, and the country of the Philistines, into Phoenicia, which road was to the east of the Mediterranean sea.
And it shall stop the noses of the passengers; or the passengers shall stop their noses, because of the ill smell of the carcasses e; or their mouths, the mouths of blasphemers, who shall no more blaspheme the God of Israel, when they shall observe this monument of his power, in the destruction of his and his people’s enemies. It may be rendered, “it shall stop the passengers f; from passing that way, because of the multitude of the carcasses that shall fall there”, and which is the reason of their being buried out of the way; this sense Jarchi takes notice of. The Targum is,
“and it is near to two mountains;”
as if this clause described the situation of the valley.
And there shall they bury Gog, and all his multitude; all his army, such of it as the fowls and beasts had not devoured, and the bones they had left; not his army only, but himself also, the Sultan or Grand Seignior of the Turks, the general of his mighty army: this was not true of Antiochus; he died not, nor was he buried in the land of Israel.
And they shall call it the valley of Hamon-gog: Hamon signifies a multitude; and this name will be imposed upon the place of Gog’s sepulchre, because of the multitude slain and buried here, and to perpetuate the memory of it: there never was yet a place of this name in the land of Israel, which shows that this event is yet future. Calmet takes it to be the valley of Jezreel, in which he thinks the army of Cambyses was defeated, after the death of that prince; wrongly taking Cambyses and his army for Gog and Magog.
b “locum ibi sepulchrum”, Starckius; “locum ubi sit sepulchrum”, Cocceius. c Ebr. Comment. p. 585. d Dictionary in the word “Vale” e So R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 66. 2. f “et erit illa obturans transeuntes”, Starckius; “et erit illa frenans transeuntes”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(11) The valley of the passengers.The name cannot be derived from the Scythians, as if they were spoken of as a cloud passing over and gone, because the same word is used again in this verse, and also in Eze. 39:14-15, evidently in a different sense. It simply denotes some (probably imaginary) thoroughfare, which is to be blocked up by the buried bodies of the slain. No definite locality is assigned to it, except that it is on the east of the sea, meaning the Dead Sea. It was to be, therefore, on the extreme south-eastern outskirts of the land. This is another of the features of the description which indicate some other than a literal interpretation; for how should such a host, invading the land from the north for purposes of plunder, be found in that locality, and how could such vast numbers of dead bodies be transported thither?
Stop the noses.The word noses is not in the original, and should be omitted. The meaning is simply that the bodies of the host shall so fill up the valley as to stop the way of travellers.
The valley of Hamon-gog.It is better to translate the word Hamon, as in the margin: The valley of the multitude of Gog. So also in Eze. 39:15.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. The R.V. reads, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place for burial in Israel, the valley of them that pass through on the cast of the sea: and it shall stop them that pass through.” Instead of “ east of” the sea, Keil reads, “in front of.” Toy reads, “I will give Gog a place of renown, a grave in Israel.” Instead of “it shall stop them that pass through,” the copies from which the Greek and Syriac translations were taken read, “they shall stop [ build up, wall in ] the mouth of the valley.” The passage is extremely difficult, but the obvious meaning is that the number of the slain, or the impurity and uncleanness of the place (Driver), shall cause the traffic through this valley to cease. “Hamon-gog” merely means “the multitude of Gog,” and in no way assists in discovering the location of this valley. If, with Cornill, instead of “the valley of them that pass through,” we read, as we probably should, “the valley of Abarim” (compare Num 27:12; Num 33:47), we are led to the frontier mountain of Israel, over against Moab, with the great horrible sulphurous valley of the Dead Sea at its foot, through which ran the ancient road most traveled by invaders from the East. (See G.A. Smith, Historical Geography, pp. 13, 261-278.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“And it will come about in that day that I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the valley of those who pass through in front of (or ‘to the east of’) the sea. And it will stop those who pass through. And there they will bury Gog and all his hordes, and they will call it the valley of Hamon-gog.”
If the sea is the Dead Sea then the burial place would be seen as outside the limits of the land as promised to Israel (east of the Dead Sea), although within that occupied by Israel. The true Israel would be made totally ‘clean’. The valley ‘will stop those who pass through’ either because being a burial ground it will be avoided, or because they stop in awe as they consider its significance as ‘the valley of the hordes of Gog’ (Hamon-gog). We can compare here the equally vivid description in Isa 66:24 of those who go forth to look on the wicked dead. Both are pictorial representations of a greater reality. They are bringing out that for eternity the great Judgment Day of God and its consequences will be a warning to His people.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eze 39:11. At place there of graves An illustrious place for sepulchre; the valley of passengers, opposite to the sea; through which the travellers shall pass stopping their noses. Houbigant. According to the Chaldee, the sea here spoken of was that of Gennezareth. 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 Gen 37:17; Gen 37:25 and Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Eze 39:11 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 [noses] of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call [it] The valley of Hamongog.
Ver. 11. I will give unto Gog a place there of graves. ] That is all the portion or possession he gets in the Holy Land.
On the east of the sea.
And it shall stop the noses of passengers.
And they shall call it.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 39:11-16
11On that day I will give Gog a burial ground there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea, and it will block off those who would pass by. So they will bury Gog there with all his horde, and they will call it the valley of Hamon-gog. 12For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. 13Even all the people of the land will bury them; and it will be to their renown on the day that I glorify Myself, declares the Lord GOD. 14They will set apart men who will constantly pass through the land, burying those who were passing through, even those left on the surface of the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. 15As those who pass through the land pass through and anyone sees a man’s bone, then he will set up a marker by it until the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog. 16And even the name of the city will be Hamonah. So they will cleanse the land.’
Eze 39:11 Hamon-gog The Hebrew CONSTRUCT (BDB 242 and 155) means the multitude of God (cf. Eze 39:15-16). Earlier in the verse another CONSTRUCT (BDB 161 and 716) calls the same valley the Valley of the Travelers or the Valley of those who pass by (cf. Eze 39:14-15). It seems to be a wordplay (i.e., The Jewish Study Bible, p. 1117) on the valley of Abarim (i.e., Vulgate), which is east of the Dead Sea and from whose peak (i.e., Mt. Nebo) Moses viewed the land of Canaan (cf. Num 27:12; Deu 32:49). Therefore, this refers to the Arnon River Valley.
Eze 39:14-15 Unburied bodies polluted the land making it Levitically unclean (i.e., Deu 21:22-23). The new restored Israel wants to fully and completely observe God’s laws.
Eze 39:16 the name of the city will be Hamonah This means multitude (BDB 242) and apparently is a city located in this burial valley by the same name.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
in. The 1611 edition of the Authorized Version reads “at”.
graves = sepulture. Septuagint and Vulgate read “memorial for burial”.
shall stop . . . passengers = obstruoteth, or arresteth, the passengers. Probably on account of its depth.
Hamon = gog = the multitude of Gog.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Gog
(See Scofield “Eze 38:2”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
the valley: Probably the valley near the Sea of Gennesareth, as the Targum renders, and so called because it was the great road by which the merchants and traders from Syria and other Eastern countries went into Egypt. Perhaps what is now called the plains of Haouran, south of Damascus.
on the east: Eze 47:18, Num 34:11, Luk 5:1, Joh 6:1
noses: or, mouths
Hamongog: that is, The multitude of Gog, Num 11:34, *margin
Reciprocal: Exo 8:14 – and the Num 19:16 – a bone 1Ch 5:4 – Gog Est 9:26 – they called Psa 110:6 – fill Isa 2:11 – in that day Isa 34:3 – slain Eze 29:5 – I will leave Eze 30:11 – and fill Eze 39:15 – in the Joe 3:2 – the valley Joe 3:12 – valley
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 39:11. Graves in Israel is a prediction that great numbers of the army of God will be slain right in the country where they expected to slay its citizens. Stop the noses of the pas-sengers. Noses has no word in the original, and the various translations I have consulted leave the phrase indefinite. It seems clear, however, that the number of those who had to be buried of the people of Gog was to be so great that the attention of travelers will be attracted.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 39:11-16. I will give unto Gog a place there of graves Houbigant translates this passage, An illustrious place for sepulture, the valley of passengers opposite to the sea; through which the travellers shall pass, stopping their noses According to the Chaldee, the scene here spoken of was the lake of Gennesareth. In the Hebrew language, all lakes are called by the name of seas. The same is called the eastern sea, (Eze 47:18,) to distinguish it from the Mediterranean, called the great sea westward, Jos 23:4. The valley near this sea is called the valley of the passengers, because it was the great road by which the merchants and traders from Syria, and other eastern countries, went into Egypt: see Gen 37:17; Gen 37:25. And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them For a long time after the battle, the inhabitants shall be employed in burying the bones of the slain, that the land might not be polluted by them. Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them See the note on the following verse. And it shall be to them a renown, &c.
Or, The day that I shall be glorified shall be to them a day of renown, or a remarkable day of joy and gladness. And they shall sever out men, &c. To cleanse the land thoroughly, men shall be set apart, and be constantly employed in picking up the bones of the slain that are scattered about, and burying them with the dead bodies of travellers who had happened to die on the roads; and they shall continue to do this, and be in daily search after the bones, for the space of seven months. The length of time assigned to this employment denotes the vast number of the slain, and the great care taken to cleanse the land from pollution. And when any seeth a mans bone, then shall he set up a sign A stone, or some other mark, that men may avoid passing over the bones, and that the persons appointed to bury them may take them from thence, and carry them to the proper burying- place. Also the name of the city shall be called Hamonah Some render this verse, Also the name of the city, assigned to them who shall cleanse the land, shall be called Hamonah, that is, a multitude. The meaning seems to be, that the city where these appointed buriers should reside during the time they were employed in this office, and near which they should bury the dead, should afterward, in memory thereof, be called Hamonah; which, signifying a multitude, thereby denoted the greatness of the victory.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 39:11-16. To cleanse the holy land from the defilement caused by the corpses of these heathen hordes, the common people were to spend seven months in collecting and burying them, in a place appointed for that purpose east of the Dead Sea; and after that, to ensure the absolute holiness of the land, permanent officials were to be appointed to go through it scrupulously marking every spot where even a bone was foundthat it might be buried in the proper place, and the land cleansed of all defilement. (In Eze 39:11 after place add, with LXX, of renown. For of them that pass through, read with different pointing of the Abarim, i.e. some valley at the N.E. corner of the Dead Sea. For it shall stop, etc. we should perhaps read, and theythe Israelitesshall close (the mouth of) the valley. Hamon means multitude. In Eze 39:14 omit them that pass through. The first half of Eze 39:16 is obscure.)
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
39:11 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.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Israelites would also bury Gog and his soldiers in a valley east of the Mediterranean Sea. This probably means that multitudes of the enemy would be buried there, not necessarily Gog personally (cf. Rev 19:20-21; Rev 20:10). The slaughter would be so great that it would take a large valley to accommodate all the corpses. This valley would become known as "The Valley of the Multitude of Gog." This cemetery would be so large that travelers would not be able to pass through that part of the land. Probably the Esdraelon Valley is in view since it is east of the Mediterranean Sea and since many travelers normally passed and still pass through it. Furthermore it is the only major east west valley in Israel. Some commentators argued for the valley being east of the Dead Sea, but that location seems unlikely. In biblical times a major highway connecting Egypt and Mesopotamia ran through the Esdraelon (Jezreel) valley. The Apostle John identified this valley as the location of the battle of Armageddon (Rev 16:13-16).