Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 39:12

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

12. It shall take all Israel ( Eze 39:13) seven months to bury Gog’s dead. The bones scattered over the land defiled it, for it was holy to the Lord, and they must be gathered and interred, cf. Eze 39:14 ; Eze 39:16.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Verse 12. And seven months] It shall require a long time to bury the dead. This is another figurative expression; which, however, may admit of a good deal of literal meaning. Many of the Syrian soldiers had secreted themselves in different places during the pursuit after the battle, where they died of their wounds, of hunger, and of fatigue; so that they were not all found and buried till seven months after the defeat of the Syrian army. This slow process of burying is distinctly related in the three following verses, and extended even to a bone, Eze 39:15; which, when it was found by a passenger, the place was marked, that the buriers might see and inter it. Seven months was little time enough for all this work; and in that country putrescency does not easily take place: the scorching winds serving to desiccate the flesh, and preserve it from decomposition.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Seven months shall the house of Israel, many of the house of Israel, some voluntarily, others by appointment, be burying of them; a little time would not suffice to bury so great multitude, make what haste they could.

Cleanse the land; not in a legal sense, but in a natural, to clear the land of hurtful stinks.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them,…. So long time will the burial of Gog’s army take up, because of the multitude of it, and by reason their bones will be scattered here and there; which will require time to gather them together, and bring them to one place: the reason of the burial of them will be, partly out of humanity, which the Christian religion, which will then be embraced by the Jews, teaches and encourages; and partly because of the disagreeable sight and ill smell of the carcasses of the slain, and to prevent the air being infected therewith, which might cause noxious diseases. Jarchi gives the reason of it, because Gog is of the seed of Japheth, who covered his father’s nakedness, and therefore worthy of a funeral: but a better reason follows,

that they may cleanse the land: not from ceremonial uncleanness, a place being unclean, by the ceremonial law, where dead carcasses, or the bones of dead men, lay; for the ceremonial law, as it is abrogated, will now be disused by the Jews themselves, when converted; but from natural pollution, before mentioned.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

12-15. It shall take seven months to gather up all the bones which defile the holy soil (compare Eze 19:11-12; Eze 32:19; Eze 36:33) and bury them, and they shall get for themselves great “renown,” not only because of this victory of Jehovah, but because of their holy zeal in cleansing the land.

Men shall be chosen who shall do nothing else than “to bury them that pass through the land,” that is, probably the invaders (A.V., passengers, Eze 39:14). Modern commentators generally suppose that the special search party (Eze 39:14) was divided into two parts, one to find the bones and the other to bury them; but this is very unnatural and is not suggested by the amended text of Eze 39:14. The search party was authorized also “to bury” the unburied (Eze 39:14), and certainly when “a man’s bone” was found it would have taken longer to set up (Hebrews, build) a sign by it (Eze 39:15)

than to bury the bone! It is easy to see, however, that the ordinary Israelite, who would hesitate to touch one of the bones, but who was now zealous for the land’s purification (Eze 39:13), would be very likely to set up such a sign. “They that pass through the land” (R.V.) may therefore refer to “passengers” (A.V.), who did not belong to the official burial party. Toy repudiates R.V. and translates the passengers (Eze 39:15) as searchers, declaring there were two parties, and that the expression “those who pass through” cannot be understood of the invaders. For Hamon-gog see Eze 39:11.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

“And seven months will the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land. Yes, all the people of the land will bury them. And it will bring honour on them (be to them a renown) in the day that I will be glorified,” says the Lord Yahweh. “And they will set apart men with the continual employment of passing through the land to bury those who pass through, who remain on the face of the land, to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will search.”

Again the emphasis is on the huge number of dead. At first the whole of Israel will be involved in burying the multitude of the dead for ‘seven months’, that is, the divinely appointed time necessary. Then the task of clearing up the remainder will be handed over to specialists, ‘the passers through’. These latter will be specifically employed on a continual basis for the task of searching out and ensuring the burial of all the bones picked clean by the scavengers which have been missed in the above operation. (We are reminded of the assiduous searching out of leaven at the feast of the Passover – see Exo 12:19).

Note that the purpose is not to give them a decent burial but to get rid of the bones and corpses of the accursed of God so that the land will be ‘clean’ (Deu 21:23). The whole purpose of the operation is the purity of God’s people which must be the concern of the whole people. While such bodies remained unburied the land was ‘unclean’ and ‘defiled’ . The everlasting Israel must be free from all taint and totally pure for their everlasting future.

And by these actions great honour will come on Israel, for they will be having their part in the great glory brought on the name of God by what has happened in the defeat of the forces of darkness in ‘the day that He is glorified’.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Eze 39:12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.

Ver. 12. And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them. ] That is, a long while; like as the Reformed Churches were in rooting out Popery, those damnable doctrines, ceremonies, images, relics, bulls, and books. Here in England, the Romish religion stood a whole month and more after the death of Queen Mary, as before. December 27, it was permitted that the Epistles, Gospels, Ten Commandments, Lord’s Prayer, Creed, and Litany should be used in the Vulgate tongue. March 22, when the Estates of the realm were assembled, by renewing of a law of Edward VI, was granted the whole use of the Lord’s Supper – that is, under both kinds. June 24, the sacrifice of the mass was abolished, and the liturgy in the English tongue established. In July, the oath of supremacy was ministered; and in August, images were removed out of churches, broken or burnt. a

“ Tantae molis erat Romanam abscondere gentem. ”

a Camden’s Elisabeth.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)