Ezekiel 39:14, commentary and pictures

After a great divine destruction of invading enemies, specially appointed workers are set apart to keep passing through the country and bury the remaining corpses to purify the ground, with the systematic search beginning when seven months end. That purifying is the removal of defiling dead bodies from the land, not the cleansing of the sanctuary. The promise belonged to Israel returning from Babylonian exile and was conditioned on wholehearted repentance and putting away wickedness, so because they were not ashamed and did not repent it was never carried out in detail and never will be literally. Its promised glorious future will still be realized for the faithful, the true Israel of God now embracing Gentiles as fellow heirs and partakers of the promise in Christ, under broader and more glorious conditions more clearly shown in Revelation. In general outline it describes the gathering for Armageddon and the final northern assault upon God's people, though some place this national judgment with plagues upon the northern nations before Christ comes while others place the doom of Gog and his allies after the thousand years at the final judgment.

Wording and Original Setting

Men are severed out to continual employment to pass through the land to search for bodies and to bury the dead with the passengers that remain upon the face of the earth, in order to cleanse it, with the search beginning after the end of seven months. The Hebrew word translated cleanse denotes the work of removing and burying the slain bodies that defile the land after the great battle. This burial and cleansing of the land is not the cleansing of the sanctuary. This detailed burial belonged to the conditions of Israel's promised deliverance and to the prophecy's original setting for Israel, conditioned on ancient Israel's faith and obedience and possible in Israel's past, but because Israel failed those conditions it will never occur in that form, and it does not describe the fate of the slain in the final war when the slain are left unburied nor supply a detail of the final conflict in the same way.

The verse stands in Ezekiel 33 to 48, the closing section of consolation and promise of restoration that shows God's love for His house, with chapters 38 to 40 lying within that closing portion. It belongs to the prophecies of chapters 38 and 39 in which judgment is brought against the wicked nations which, controlled by Satan, seek to destroy God's people, and its fulfillment, whether past or future, shows the hand of God directly at work. Enemies advancing against Israel are destroyed by divine judgment, their bodies left for birds to consume and the land afterward cleansed, picturing the last days as national conflict and widespread death.

The seven months signify a thorough, complete cleansing for all time and eternity. The passengers and those remaining upon the earth are the whole house of Israel, who have passed through cleansing fires and are beyond the power of the second death, and the scene belongs to the final judgment of Gog and his allies, whose armies meet their final doom in the valley of eternal death after the second resurrection. Ezekiel 39:9-16 is obscure, joining what refers to the past and what glances to the last days so that a clear line of demarcation is not easy, and the burial and cleansing it describes will occur in other places than Gehenna in the valley of Hinnom, which has been and is to be a place of punishment and may again be a place of punishment by fire.

Conditional Prophecy and Fulfillment

The prophecy belongs to what was originally given to Israel during the restoration from the Babylonian captivity, running from Ezekiel 36 onward. What God would do, including conquering enemies and the detailed search and burial after seven months, was conditioned on Israel yielding wholly to God, repenting, and putting away wickedness, like the principles stated in Jeremiah 18:8-10. The search and burial work after the defeat of Gog and Magog as part of cleansing the land belonged to what would have happened if Israel had met God's conditions of faith and obedience, with Israel restored and the northern nations destroyed.

If Israel had been ashamed of sins and returned with all the heart, God would have brought them back upon the mountains of Israel, cleansed them from sins, and made them great. He would have caused the resurrection described in Ezekiel 37, destroyed the northern host described in Ezekiel 38 and 39 with plagues upon enemies, and brought the kings of the north and enemies far and near into subjection. He would then have enabled Israel to build the marvelous sanctuary and glorious temple of Ezekiel 40-48 with its water of life and overpowering glory, where His presence would dwell in the city called Jehovah Is There. The land would have been newly divided, the life and healing power of God would have come upon Palestine and the earth, the return of scattered people and victory over enemies and God's presence among them would have been realized, and Israel would have become a light to the world.

Because Israel did not truly repent, was not ashamed, did not forsake sin and return with all the heart, and did not meet the conditions, the appointed burying of the dead and cleansing of the land was never fulfilled in detail. It never will be literally fulfilled, and only a mere shadow of the temple was built instead of the wonderful structure shown to the prophet. The prophecy was fulfilled only in a very small part, with only a faint shadow in the prosperity after the restoration from Babylon.

The prophecy must not be pressed in all its details as literal prediction of its own time or of later times. Its promises of a glorious future, future glory, and full immortal inheritance will still be fulfilled for God's own people and toward the faithful and the true Israel of God, who now include the Gentiles as fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Because Israel did not meet the stated conditions, fulfillment is assigned to the last days under different, broader, stronger, and more glorious conditions, understood much better from the unconditional prophecies and the fuller, clearer disclosures given in Revelation. Part is fulfilled before the second coming of Christ but in the clearer terms given in Revelation, and part is fulfilled at the end of the thousand years.

In general outline the prophecy describes the gathering for Armageddon, since some details concern what might have happened if Israel had met the Lord's conditions and remained in the land. It associates Persia with the great power ruling over the north parts, in which God gathers His people from among the nations and brings them into their own land. Had God's people remained faithful, Israel would have occupied Palestine and the great confederacy of evil would have been directed against God's people and would have invaded their territory. In the present situation God's people are scattered worldwide, but the evil plan still aims to gain the territory once occupied by Israel and destroy them, and the alignment of nations for Armageddon makes urgent the spreading of the gospel among those nations.

The prophecy is applied to Russia as Rosh, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and her international policy and her ultimate destiny. Russia is presented as turned back, with Japan as one means the Lord uses to turn her back, and brought forth in the present war, bearing on present European affairs and conditions, the unhappy condition in the Far East, and rapidly developing events of worldwide import. It bears on the present distress of nations with perplexity and men's hearts failing for fear while looking after those things coming on the earth, and on a final northern apostasy bringing great power and destruction over the Holy Land. It was given beforehand as warning, for prophecy is useless as warning if not applied until after fulfillment, meaning eternal salvation to some and everlasting destruction to others, and in part it has been fulfilled but much is yet to come to pass in the immediate and near future.

On timing, the weight of teaching holds the verse to be part of a national judgment with plagues upon distinct nations and an aggregation of nations in a great horde from the north led by Magog sweeping down upon God's people Israel in Palestine, taking place before Christ comes. It cannot belong to the time at the end of the thousand years, because when all the dead of all ages are raised then national boundaries and distinctions are completely eliminated and no such divisions or aggregation of nations exist. Those who held the other teaching placed the scene at the final judgment of Gog and his allies after the second resurrection, with men continually employed to search the land and bury the dead after seven months completing the burial and cleansing. In that teaching the seven months signify a thorough, complete cleansing for all time and eternity, the passengers and those remaining upon the earth are the whole house of Israel who have passed through cleansing fires and are beyond the power of the second death, Gog and Magog are the wicked whom Satan gathers for the last attack after the thousand years, and their armies meet final doom in the valley of eternal death.

The burial details belonged to Israel's time and to the conditions of Israel's promised deliverance and could have occurred in Israel's past, and they do not describe the fate of the slain in the final war in the same way. The seven-month burial detail belongs to the prophecy's original setting for Israel and is not a detail of the final conflict, which is fulfilled under the new covenant without reproducing every detail. In the greater final fulfillment in the glory of the second coming of Jesus Christ and events connected with it there will be no such local conditions and no cleansing of the land by human hands, for the slain are left unburied and the fires of the last day will consume sin out of the world and melt the earth with fervent heat. There are no unwalled villages with all dwelling safely, no spoil of cattle and goods and wealth in poor Palestine to arouse cupidity to think an evil thought and sweep down for spoil, and no wooden shields and bucklers and hand staves and spears for Israel to burn for fuel. The plagues, pestilence, hailstones, fire and brimstone that God pours out upon the wicked who come against His people find their setting not in Ezekiel 38 and 39 but in Revelation 16-19, though combined armies like those set forth in Ezekiel may appear in near-future revolutions and sweep down over lesser powers and utterly destroy them, but not in the setting found in these prophecies.