Ezekiel 39:11

11 And it hath come to pass, in that day, I give to Gog a place there -- a grave in Israel, the valley of those passing by, east of the sea, and it is stopping those passing by, and they have buried there Gog, and all his multitude, and have cried, O valley of the multitude of Gog!

Ezekiel 39:11 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 39:11

And it shall come to pass in that day
When this destruction of the army of Gog shall be made: that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel;
or, "a place there, a grave in Israel" ^F2; he that thought to have subdued the whole land, and taken possession of it, shall have no more of it than just a place for a grave, to be buried in; a place fit for a grave, as the Targum; and where that will be is next observed: "the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea"; a valley through which travellers used to pass from Syria, Babylon, and other places, to Egypt and Arabia Felix, which lay east of the sea; not the Mediterranean sea, which lies west of Judea; but either the Dead sea, the sea of Sodom, a sulphurous lake, to which there may be an allusion, ( Revelation 19:20 ) or the sea of Chinnereth, or Genesareth, as the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi; the same with the sea or lake of Tiberias and Galilee, mentioned in the New Testament; which sense is approved of by Gussetius ^F3; where was a passage from the land of Canaan to the east of the same sea. Calmet ^F4 thinks it stands for the great road at the foot of Mount Carmel, to go from Judea, Egypt, and the country of the Philistines, into Phoenicia, which road was to the east of the Mediterranean sea. And it shall stop the noses of the passengers;
or the passengers shall stop their noses, because of the ill smell of the carcasses ^F5; or their mouths, the mouths of blasphemers, who shall no more blaspheme the God of Israel, when they shall observe this monument of his power, in the destruction of his and his people's enemies. It may be rendered, "it shall stop the passengers ^F6; from passing that way, because of the multitude of the carcasses that shall fall there", and which is the reason of their being buried out of the way; this sense Jarchi takes notice of. The Targum is,

``and it is near to two mountains;''

as if this clause described the situation of the valley. And there shall they bury Gog, and all his multitude;
all his army, such of it as the fowls and beasts had not devoured, and the bones they had left; not his army only, but himself also, the Sultan or Grand Seignior of the Turks, the general of his mighty army: this was not true of Antiochus; he died not, nor was he buried in the land of Israel. And they shall call it the valley of Hamon-gog:
Hamon signifies a multitude; and this name will be imposed upon the place of Gog's sepulchre, because of the multitude slain and buried here, and to perpetuate the memory of it: there never was yet a place of this name in the land of Israel, which shows that this event is yet future. Calmet takes it to be the valley of Jezreel, in which he thinks the army of Cambyses was defeated, after the death of that prince; wrongly taking Cambyses and his army for Gog and Magog.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (rbq Mv Mwqm) "locum ibi sepulchrum", Starckius; "locum ubi sit sepulchrum", Cocceius.
F3 Ebr. Comment. p. 585.
F4 Dictionary in the word "Vale"
F5 So R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 66. 2.
F6 (Myrbeh ta ayh tmoxw) "et erit illa obturans transeuntes", Starckius; "et erit illa frenans transeuntes", Cocceius.

Ezekiel 39:11 In-Context

9 And gone out have the inhabitants of cities of Israel, And they have burned and kindled [a fire], With armour, and shield, and buckler, With bow, and with arrows, And with hand-staves, and with javelins, And they have caused a fire to burn with them seven years,

10 And they do not take wood out of the field, Nor do they hew out of the forests, For with armour they cause the fire to burn, And they have spoiled their spoilers, And they have plundered their plunderers, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

11 And it hath come to pass, in that day, I give to Gog a place there -- a grave in Israel, the valley of those passing by, east of the sea, and it is stopping those passing by, and they have buried there Gog, and all his multitude, and have cried, O valley of the multitude of Gog!

12 And the house of Israel have buried them -- in order to cleanse the land -- seven months.

13 Yea, all the people of the land have buried them, and it hath been to them for a name -- the day of My being honoured -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.