Ezequiel 39:4

4 Sobre los montes de Israel caerás tú, y todas tus compañías, y los pueblos que fueron contigo: á toda ave y á toda cosa que vuela, y á las bestias del campo, te he dado por comida.

Ezequiel 39:4 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 39:4

Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel
Be slain, and his carcass lie there; so the Targum,

``upon the mountains of the land of Israel thy carcass shall be cast:''
thou and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee; Gog and his army, auxiliaries and allies: I will give thee to the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts
of the field to be devoured:
a great part of his army being slain, should not be buried, but be devoured by birds of prey, and savage beasts; such as eagles and vultures of the former sort, and lions, bears, wolves of the latter. This was always reckoned a very sore judgment and dreadful calamity, not to have a burial, but to be exposed to birds and beasts of prey; this was threatened to the Israelites, in case of disobedience to the law of God, ( Deuteronomy 28:26 ) and to the wicked Jews in the times of Jeremiah; and to that evil king of Judah, Jehoiakim, ( Jeremiah 16:4 ) ( Jeremiah 22:18 Jeremiah 22:19 ) and is lamented as one of the greatest evils that could befall good men, ( Psalms 79:2 ) , and nothing was more dreadful among the Heathens themselves; hence Homer F26, among the many calamities Achilles was the cause of to the Grecians, mentions this as one, that he was the means of giving the bodies of a great number of their heroes to the dogs, and to the fowls of the air; so Virgil F1 represents the want of a burial, and being left to be fed upon by birds of prey, as severe a punishment of a wicked man as can be wished for.
FOOTNOTES:

F26 Iliad. 1. l. 4, 5.
F1 "----non te optima mater Condet humi, patriove onerrabit membra sepulchro Alitibus linquere feris". Aeneid. l. 10.

Ezequiel 39:4 In-Context

2 Y te quebrantaré, y te sextaré, y te haré subir de las partes del norte, y te traeré sobre los montes de Israel;
3 Y sacaré tu arco de tu mano izquierda, y derribaré tus saetas de tu mano derecha.
4 Sobre los montes de Israel caerás tú, y todas tus compañías, y los pueblos que fueron contigo: á toda ave y á toda cosa que vuela, y á las bestias del campo, te he dado por comida.
5 Sobre la haz del campo caerás: porque yo he hablado, dice el Señor Jehová.
6 Y enviaré fuego sobre Magog, y sobre los que moran seguramente en las islas; y sabrán que yo soy Jehová.
The Reina-Valera Antigua (1602) is in the public domain.