Ezekiel 39:13, commentary and pictures

All the people of the land will bury the slain invaders to cleanse the land, and that work of burial will become a renown to them in the day God is glorified. It was a conditional promise of restoration after the Babylonian captivity, offering to bring His people back to the mountains of Israel, cleanse them from sin, deliver them from the northern horde, be glorified before them, make Jerusalem a praise in the earth, and dwell among them in the sanctuary of Ezekiel 40 to 48. Because Israel did not repent and return to the Lord with all the heart, the prophecy was never fulfilled as described, but only in very small and feeble part when about forty thousand returned and built the inferior temple of Zerubbabel. In its general sense it points to God's final punishment of those who would destroy His people, still holding for His own people now including Gentiles as fellow heirs in Christ, to be fulfilled in the last days under broader conditions with no local conditions and with Gog punished partly in this world and ultimately at the end of the thousand years. The burial detail cannot be applied literally in detail under the new covenant, for the last great war leaves the slain unburied and the final cleansing is by the fires of the last day, when those who remain are the whole house of Israel delivered from the second death and receive the fullness of the immortal inheritance in the earth made new.

Burial and Conditional Promise

Yea, all the people of the land shall take part in burying the slain invaders, to cleanse the land of the dead bodies left by the great battle, and that burial work shall become a renown to them in the day that the Lord is glorified. That burial and cleansing after the final judgments is complete and endures for all time, with the people who remain as the whole house of Israel delivered from the second death while Gog and his host meet their final doom in the second death. This burial of Ezekiel 39:11-16 is not the cleansing of the sanctuary.

The verse stands in the closing part of Ezekiel, chapters 33 to 48, and especially chapters 36 to 48 and 38 to 40, which give consolation and promise about restoration and show God's love for His house. Chapters 38 and 39 are prophecies of judgments against the wicked nations which, controlled by Satan, seek to destroy God's people, joined to God's direct and explicit promises of great blessings in the salvation of Israel His people and in the glory with which He will invest the land, the city and the sanctuary.

The verse belonged to conditional promises offered to Israel after the Babylonian captivity, which God would have fulfilled in detail, literally to Israel in the restoration from Babylon, if the people had yielded and truly repented, been ashamed of iniquities, forsaken sin, and returned to the Lord with all the heart. Because Israel did not yield and failed to meet those conditions, the conditions were never fulfilled and the prophecy was never fulfilled as described, not even in its local defeat of the northern enemies and its promised burial and renown. The burial detail applied to that historical setting for literal fleshly Israel under the old covenant, and does not apply in the same way in detail to the final conflict under the new covenant. The burial and cleansing of the land belonged to what would have occurred if Israel had been faithful, and they are not details of the last great war, in which the slain will remain unburied.

What God would have done was to bring back those scattered through all nations upon the mountains of Israel, cleanse them from sin, make them great, and raise them as in the resurrection of Ezekiel 37. He would have subdued and slain the northern horde of Ezekiel 38 and 39 with plagues, conquered the enemies of His people, restored the people, and been glorified before them and made manifest among them in the sight of the nations in that deliverance and burial. He would have made Jerusalem a praise in the earth, rested His glory on the city and dwelt among them with glory never seen before, and opened the way to build the marvelous sanctuary of Ezekiel 40 to 48 where His presence would dwell in overpowering glory and the city would be called Jehovah Is There, with its water of life and glory of God, so that Israel would have become a light indeed to the world.

Because Israel failed and refused to be ashamed, the prophecy was fulfilled only in very small part, in feeble and shadow form, and in its greater final fulfillment there will be no local conditions and no cleansing of the land by human hands. Only about forty thousand returned from Babylon, so its fullness was not realized. Only the inferior temple built by Zerubbabel and Ezra was built instead of the wonderful structure shown to the prophet, a mere shadow instead of that sanctuary with all its blessed fullness, and the sanctuary described in Ezekiel 37 to 48 will never be built.

Last-Day Prophecy and Fulfillment

Ezekiel 39:13 belongs to the final scenes of Gog's career, with Gog identified as Russia and her international policy and ultimate destiny amid the distress of nations and rapidly developing events of worldwide import in the Far East. Its general outline concerns the gathering for Armageddon and a final northern apostasy sweeping across the Holy Land in bloody strife among nations in the last days. In that strife the enemies of God advance against Israel and perish in a fiery storm at God's presence, while birds are summoned to feast on their bodies, leading to Gog's ruin and the end of the world. This foretells present European conditions, including Russia being turned back by Japan and being brought forth in the present European war.

The prophecy is history foretold and warning of things coming on the earth, meaning eternal salvation to some and everlasting destruction to others, given to make wise unto salvation and to guide as a light in a dark place upon whom the ends of the world are come. In part it has been fulfilled, but much of it is yet to come to pass in the immediate and near future. It is a confessedly obscure prophecy in which it is not easy to draw a clear line of demarcation between what refers to the past and what refers to the future, though it glances clearly to the last days.

The burial detail belonged to what would have occurred in detail if Israel had obeyed God and cannot be applied literally in detail to the last days under the new covenant. The burial and cleansing of the land belonged to that historical setting for faithful Israel, when all the people of the land would literally bury the dead northern invaders to cleanse the land and gain renown in the day God was glorified; they are not details of the last great war, in which the slain will remain unburied. In its greater final fulfillment in the glory of the second coming there will be no local conditions and no cleansing of the land by human hands, but the fires of the last day will consume sin out of the world and melt the earth with fervent heat. The chapter demands the mountains of Israel inhabited by a people God calls His own gathered out from all nations and dwelling safely all together in unwalled villages with property and cattle and goods and wealth, and it is that wealth that arouses cupidity to think an evil thought and sweep down to take great spoil, but Palestine is the poorest of lands controlled by the Turk holding only few Jews, with no such safety and no such wealth to tempt invasion. It demands invaders armed with wooden shields and bucklers and hand staves and spears that Israel could use for fuel, but the armies of today are not equipped with weapons of that kind.

The burial of Ezekiel 39:11-16, in which dead bodies left by a great battle are buried to cleanse the land of Israel unto renown when God is glorified, is not the cleansing of the sanctuary. Its destruction will occur in another place, distinct from Gehenna in the valley of Hinnom and distinct from the valley of Jehoshaphat.

In its general sense, apart from literal detail, the verse points to God's final punishment of those who would destroy His people. That judgment is to be considered in light of the fuller disclosures in Revelation 16-19 rather than in a literal local setting. Had Israel remained faithful, God's people would have occupied Palestine and the evil confederacy would have been directed against them and invaded their territory there, but the prophecy now applies to God's people scattered throughout the world and to the confederacy's continuing plan to seize territory and destroy them.

The fulfillment is conditional and mixed, first given to literal fleshly Israel under the old covenant with details depending on ancient Israel's faith and obedience, and because Israel did not meet those conditions it will not be fulfilled in its original setting. Its promise of a glorious future will still be fulfilled for God's own people, now including the Gentiles as fellow heirs and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, which is a fuller revelation than was made known in other generations, to be fulfilled in the last days under broader and different conditions with no local conditions. Part of Ezekiel 38 and 39 is fulfilled on this side of the second coming in the clearer terms stated in Revelation, involving divisions and aggregation of nations in a national judgment before Christ comes. Gog and Magog are punished partly in this world and ultimately at the end of the thousand years, yet the verse does not describe the rising of Gog and Magog at the end of the thousand years, because when all the dead of all ages come up then national boundaries and distinctions are completely eliminated.

When complete, the burial and cleansing are complete and endure for all time: all the people of the land bury Gog's forces and this becomes a public renown on the day God is glorified. The people who remain are the whole house of Israel delivered from the second death, while Gog and his host meet their final doom in the second death. The promises to true Israel will be fulfilled according to later revelations, with future glory and the fullness of the immortal inheritance, and Israel receiving the earth made new.

The verse gives no support for the return-of-the-Jews theory, for a special work of God among the Jews in the Christian dispensation, for the reign of Christ on earth, or for an earthly inheritance as urged from it. The saints are taken to heaven at the second coming of Christ when the earth is desolated, and that taking to heaven with the desolation of the earth overthrows those theories.