Ezekiel 39:12-13 - Exposition

The time that should be occupied in Gog's funeral should be seven months—so great should be the number of the dead—the sacred number seven recalling the seven years consumed in the burning of the weapons ( Ezekiel 39:9 ), and reminding one of the "seven times heated" furnace into which the Hebrew children were cast, and of the "seven times" of Nebuchadnezzar's humiliation ( Daniel 3:19 ; Daniel 4:23 ). The parties who should conduct his obsequies should be the house of Israel , even all the people of the land , indicating the common joy occasioned by the barbaric chieftain's overthrow. The motive which should impel them in their work would be a desire to cleanse the land from the defilement it had contracted from the corpses of the slain (comp. Numbers 19:11 , Numbers 19:22 ; Numbers 31:19 ; Numbers 35:33 ); and the end should be that the work should be to them, not for "a remembrance" (Ewald), but a renown , not because they should have helped to bury Gog (Hengstenberg), or through burying Gog should have proved themselves his conquerors (Smend), and in virtue of Jehovah's protection the possessors of his grave (Hitzig), but because in the day when Jehovah glorified himself through Gog's destruction, he (Jehovah) should also be glorified by their (Israel's) zeal "to show themselves a holy people by sweeping all uncleanness away" (Keil).