HarperCollins Study Bible
Page 311
36.27 The new spirit (v. 26) is construed as my spirit, God’s spirit (cf. Lev 26.3; Gen 2.7), which will enable Israelites to obey the covenant statutes.
36.28 The covenant formula (e.g., 11.20;14.11) reinforces Israel’s ability to remain in the land.
36.29–30 Cf. 34.27.
36.33–36 Destroyed towns and fields, of a sort described in v. 4, will be rebuilt.
36.35 Just as foreigners commented on the ignominious state of Israel in exile, they will attest verbally to the restored country—it will be like the garden of Eden; cf. Jer 31.23–28; Isa 51.3.
36.37–38 The first instance of Israel being allowed to request something (cf. 14.3;20.3)—repopulation; cf. vv. 10–11. The request recalls the covenant blessings of population (Lev 26.9). The evidence for great numbers, two flocks for sacrifice, allows for a return to the imagery of God’s people as a flock (cf. ch. 34).
EZEKIEL 37
The Valley of Dry Bones
1The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” 4Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breatha to enter you, and you shall live. 6I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breathb in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD.”
7So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath:c Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath,d and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” 10I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
11Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ 12Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act, says the LORD.”
The Two Sticks
15The word of the LORD came to me: 16Mortal, take a stick and write on it, “For Judah, and the Israelites associated with it” then take another stick and write on it, “For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with it” 17and join them together into one stick, so that they may become one in your hand. 18And when your people say to you, “Will you not show us what you mean by these?” 19say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am about to take the stick of Joseph (which is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with it; and I will put the stick of Judah upon it,e and make them one stick, in order that they may be one in my hand. 20When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, 21then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from every quarter, and bring them to their own land. 22I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms. 23They shall never again defile themselves with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all the apostasies into which they have fallen,f and will cleanse them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
24My servant David shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes. 25They shall live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your ancestors lived; they and their children and their children’s children shall live there forever; and my servant David shall be their prince forever. 26I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will blessg them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary among them forevermore. 27My dwelling place shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28Then the nations shall know that I the LORD sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is among them forevermore.
next chapter
* * *
a Or spirit
b Or spirit
c Or wind or spirit
d Or wind or spirit
e Heb I will put them upon it
f Another reading is from all the settlements in which they have sinned
g Tg: Heb give
37.1–14 The third vision report: the valley of dry bones (vv. 1–10) and its meaning (vv. 11–14).
37.1 The hand of the LORD. See note on 1.3. He brought me out by the spirit of the LORD seems awkward if he is the deity; cf. 11.5, 24. Valley, or “plain” see note on 3.22. The venue is Mesopotamia.
37.3 After having shown Ezekiel the bones in the valley, God asks him a question that, if rhetorical, deserves a negative answer. The prophet demurs with a response that affirms the power of the deity.
37.4–5 The prophet is ordered to address the bones with an oracle, which concludes with an echo of the “know” motif (v. 6).
37.6 Breath, or “spirit” cf. 36.26–27.
37.7–10 Ezekiel performs as ordered but must utter a second oracle to the breath, or the “spirit” cf. Gen 2.7; Eccl 3.20–21; 12.7. The four winds. Cf. 42.20; Jer 49.36; Dan 8.8; Zech 2.6; 6.5; but the breath comes from and is not identical with the winds of the compass points. Slain. One senses the imagery of a battlefield full of long dead warriors; cf. 32.4–5. If so, the valley of dry bones is no straightforward allegory of Israel in exile.
37.11 An interpretation of the bones as the whole house of Israel, i.e., those in various diaspora settings as well as those still in the land (cf. vv. 15–22). The quotation reflects the vocabulary and style of lamentation (e.g., Pss 31.10; 35.10) over bones, in which various symbolically graphic descriptions of physical malaise may occur. On being cut off, cf. Ps 88.5; Isa 53.8; Lam 3.54.
37.12–14 The prophet continues to speak to all Israel as if the people were dead. The imagery, however, is new—not that of unburied bones but of corpses in graves.
37.14 Cf. 36.27–28.
37.15–28 The two sticks become one, a symbolic action with several interpretations.
37.15–19 The symbolic action and its primary interpretation.
37.16 Stick, perhaps a wooden staff (cf. Num 17.1–13, a narrative in which the names of Israelite ancestral houses were written upon staffs), or a wooden writing board. Less likely is a shepherd’s crook or a royal scepter. The Hebrew noun is the generic word for “tree” or “wood.” The most probable forms of the original inscriptions were: for Judah and for Joseph, symbolizing the Southern and Northern Kingdoms, respectively.
37.19 National reunification—one stick—is the goal (so also vv. 21–22).
37.22 One king. Cf. v. 25; 34.23–24; 46.1–18, though the term king is not used in those places.
37.24b–26 The people will be in a covenant relationship; cf. 34.25.
37.27–28 My sanctuary, the temple in Jerusalem, which foreshadows chs. 40–48.
EZEKIEL 38
Invasion by Gog
1The word of the LORD came to me: 2Mortal, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Prophesy against him 3and say: Thus says the Lord GOD: I am against you,
O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; 4I will turn you around and put hooks into your jaws, and I will lead you out with all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company, all of them with shield and buckler, wielding swords. 5Persia, Ethiopia,a and Put are with them, all of them with buckler and helmet; 6Gomer and all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remotest parts of the north with all its troops—many peoples are with you.
7Be ready and keep ready, you and all the companies that are assembled around you, and hold yourselves in reserve for them. 8After many days you shall be mustered; in the latter years you shall go against a land restored from war, a land where people were gathered from many nations on the mountains of Israel, which had long lain waste; its people were brought out from the nations and now are living in safety, all of them. 9You shall advance, coming on like a storm; you shall be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you.
10Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme. 11You will say, “I will go up against the land of unwalled villages; I will fall upon the quiet people who live in safety, all of them living without walls, and having no bars or gates” 12to seize spoil and carry off plunder; to assail the waste places that are now inhabited, and the people who were gathered from the nations, who are acquiring cattle and goods, who live at the centerb of the earth. 13Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its young warriorsc will say to you, “Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your horde to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to seize a great amount of booty?”
14Therefore, mortal, prophesy, and say to Gog: Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day when my people Israel are living securely, you will rouse yourselfd 15and come from your place out of the remotest parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army; 16you will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the earth. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I display my holiness before their eyes.
Judgment on Gog
17Thus says the Lord GOD: Are you he of whom I spoke in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel, who in those days prophesied for years that I would bring you against them? 18On that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel, says the Lord GOD, my wrath shall be aroused. 19For in my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare: On that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; 20the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the animals of the field, and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all human beings that are on the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground. 21I will summon the sword against Goge inf all my mountains, says the Lord GOD; the swords of all will be against their comrades. 22With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him; and I will pour down torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur, upon him and his troops and the many peoples that are with him. 23So I will display my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.
next chapter
* * *
a Or Nubia; Heb Cush
b Heb navel
c Heb young lions
d Gk: Heb will you not know?
e Heb him
f Heb to or for
38.1–39.29 Discourse against Gog of Magog. Two complex chapters directed against Gog, the ruler and general of Magog’s forces. His army will be decimated in a cataclysmic defeat, once it attacks Israel. After the drama has been played out, Israel will dwell securely in the land. Gog and Magog appear transhistorical, though the name Gog may derive from the name of the Lydian ruler Gyges. The name of the land Magog was probably created to rhyme with Gog; for another toponymic rhyme, cf. 27.10; 30.5.
38.2 Chief prince does not imply subordination to someone, but highest status among a plurality of rulers, e.g., a regional group of rulers (26.16; 32.30). Meshech and Tubal. Cf. 27.13; note on 32.26–28; Gen 10.2.
38.4 I will turn you…lead you out. God physically drags Gog and his army out for battle; cf. 19.4. Mention of numerous weapons becomes especially important in light of 39.9–10.
38.5 The force is international, though these names may be later additions to the passage.
38.6 Gomer (the Cimmerians) and Beth-togarmah (cf. 27.14; Gen 10.3) are both associated with Asia Minor, i.e., from the remotest parts of the north.
38.8 After many days, often viewed as an eschatological formula pertaining to an end-time or a future time of judgment and transformation. A land restored from war, presumably a reference to Israel restored after exile, i.e., in the quite distant future from the perspective of Ezekiel and his contemporaries.
38.9 For similar descriptions of military advance, see Isa 10.3; Jer 4.13; Joel 2.2.
38.10–13 Gog and his scheme for plunder. For similar language concerning an enemy of Israel, see Jer 4.13.
38.11 Unwalled villages. Cf. Esth 9.19; Zech 2.4.
38.12 Center, or navel, of the earth (Greek omphalos) must refer to Jerusalem, so 5.5.
38.13 Sheba, Dedan, Tarshish, all nations cited in the commercial nation listing (27.22, 20, 12). Their interest in plunder is conveyed in prolix questions.
38.14–18 God declaims to Gog.
38.14 On that day, another eschatological formula; cf. note on 38.8. For the remainder of the verse, cf. vv. 4–5.
38.16 Through you, a foreshadowing of Gog’s fate.
38.17 The Hebrew Masoretic tradition preserves a textual error that results in the verse being construed as a question. It is preferable to read with the Greek (Septuagint) and Latin (Vulgate): “You are he of whom I spoke…” For the notion of earlier prophets, cf. Zech 1.4. Such earlier oracles might have been similar to Jer 4.5–6.26.
38.18–23 God’s theophanic response.
38.18–19 On that day, the “day of the LORD” cf. 30.3.
38.19–22 A classic description of a theophany in which the deity’s appearance wreaks havoc with the natural order and, when it occurs in a military context, with any enemy of the Lord.
38.19 On theophanic shaking, cf. Joel 2.10; 2.30.
38.20 The fish…the earth. Using vocabulary drawn from the Priestly creation account in Gen 1, the objects of such shaking are specified. On geographic disorder, cf. Isa 2.14; Zech 14.4–5.
38.22 An eclectic assemblage of destructive natural phenomena directed at Gog.
38.23 Reflexive verbs in the Hebrew highlight God’s role in the destruction of Gog.
EZEKIEL 39
Gog’s Armies Destroyed
1And you, mortal, prophesy against Gog, and say: Thus says the Lord GOD: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal! 2I will turn you around and drive you forward, and bring you up from the remotest parts of the north, and lead you against the mountains of Israel. 3I will strike your bow from your left hand, and will make your arrows drop out of your right hand. 4You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples that are with you; I will give you to birds of prey of every kind and to the wild animals to be devoured. 5You shall fall in the open field; for I have spoken, says the Lord GOD. 6I will send fire on Magog and on those who live securely in the coastlands; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7My holy name I will make known among my people Israel; and I will not let my holy name be profaned any more; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. 8It has come! It has happened, says the Lord GOD. This is the day of which I have spoken.
9Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them—bucklers and shields, bows and arrows, handpikes and spears—and they will make fires of them for seven years. 10They will not need to take wood out of the field or cu
t down any trees in the forests, for they will make their fires of the weapons; they will despoil those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, says the Lord GOD.
The Burial of Gog
11On that day I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelersa east of the sea; it shall block the path of the travelers, for there Gog and all his horde will be buried; it shall be called the Valley of Hamon-gog.b 12Seven months the house of Israel shall spend burying them, in order to cleanse the land. 13All the people of the land shall bury them; and it will bring them honor on the day that I show my glory, says the Lord GOD. 14They will set apart men to pass through the land regularly and bury any invadersc who remain on the face of the land, so as to cleanse it; for seven months they shall make their search. 15As the searchersd pass through the land, anyone who sees a human bone shall set up a sign by it, until the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog.e 16(A city Hamonahf is there also.) Thus they shall cleanse the land.
17As for you, mortal, thus says the Lord GOD: Speak to the birds of every kind and to all the wild animals: Assemble and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. 18You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. 19You shall eat fat until you are filled, and drink blood until you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you. 20And you shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers,g with warriors and all kinds of soldiers, says the Lord GOD.
Israel Restored to the Land
21I will display my glory among the nations; and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them. 22The house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God, from that day forward. 23And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt treacherously with me. So I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. 24I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them.