Ezekiel 39:17 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 39:17
And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
man
אָדָ֜ם'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · noun, common masculine singular absolute
saith
אָמַ֣ר'a.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Lord
אֲדֹנָ֣י'a.do.Nai
H136
the Lord (used as a proper name of God only) · proper noun, a title
GOD
יְהֹוִ֗הYah.weh
H3069
YHWH · proper noun, a title
Speak
אֱמֹר֩'e.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
feathered
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Zephaniah 1:7 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his…
Revelation 19:17-18 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and ga…
Isaiah 34:6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys…
Ezekiel 39:4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous…
Jeremiah 12:9 Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to d…
Isaiah 56:9 All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest.
Isaiah 18:6 They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all t…
Jeremiah 46:10 For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 39:8-22
Though this prophecy was to have its accomplishment in the latter days, yet it is here spoken of as if it were already accomplished, because it is certain (Eze 39:8): "Behold it has come, and it is done; it is as sure to be done when the time shall come as if it were done already; this is the day whereof I have long and often spoken, and, though it has been long in coming, yet at length it has come." Thus it was said unto John (Rev 21:6), It is done. To represent the routing of the army of Gog as very great, here are three things specified as the consequences of it. It was God himself that gave the defeat; we do not find that the people of Israel drew a sword or struck a stroke: but,
I. They…
(Rev 19:17).
sacrifice--Anciently worshippers feasted on the sacrifices. The birds and beasts of prey are invited to the sacrificial feast provided by God (compare Isa 18:6; Isa 34:6; Zep 1:7; Mar 9:49). Here this sacrifice holds only a subordinate place in the picture, and so is put last. Not only shall their bones lie long unburied, but they shall be stripped of the flesh by beasts and birds of prey.
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 39:17
Gather yourselves - to my sacrifice - This is an allusion to a custom common in the east: when a sacrifice is made, the friends and neighbors of the party sacrificing are invited to come and feast on the sacrifice.
John Gill on Ezekiel 39:17
And thou, son of man, thus saith the Lord God,.... What the prophet is ordered by the Lord to say is to creatures not then in being, nor yet; and, were they, they could not understand his words; but however, when the time comes, partly by an instinct in nature, and partly by a particular direction of Providence, they will be gathered together upon so great a slaughter of men; for what follows, though mentioned in this place, will be between the slaughter of Gog's army, and the burial of it, as Kimchi well observes; after the burial such an invitation would be impertinent; and which is made not for the sake of creatures, but of men, to denote the certainty of this great carnage that shall be…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 17 and following) 'Therefore, son of man, thus says the Lord God: Speak to every winged creature, to all the birds, and to all the beasts of the field or the countryside: Come together and hasten, gather from all around to my sacrifice that I have offered to you, a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, so that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat the meat of the mighty or giants, and you shall drink the blood of the rulers of the land: of rams, lambs, goats, and of bulls, as well as of all the fatted ones.' And you shall eat the fat in abundance, and drink the blood to the full, of the offering that I have sacrificed for you. And you shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men and all kinds of warriors, says the Lord God. And I 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 upon them. And the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward. And all the nations shall know that the house of Israel were taken captive because of their iniquities, because they had forsaken me and I had hidden my face from them and given them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. According to their uncleanness and their transgressions, I dealt with them and hid my face from them. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now I will bring back the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel: and I will be zealous for my holy name. And they shall bear their confusion (or disgrace), and all their transgressions, whereby they have transgressed against me, when they dwelt confidently (or securely) in their own land, fearing no one. And I will bring them back from the peoples (or nations), and gather them out of the countries of their enemies (or from the regions of the nations), and I will be sanctified in them in the sight (or presence) of many nations. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, when I have caused them to be carried away among the nations (or when I have appeared to them in the Gentiles), and have gathered them together upon their own land, and have not left any one of them there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them, for I have poured out my spirit (or fury) upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.' This which we have translated according…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Gog — (1.) A Reubenite (1 Chr. 5:4), the father of Shimei. (2.) The name of the leader of the hostile party described in Ezek. 38, 39, as coming from the “north country” and assailing the people of Israel…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
כָּנָ֜ףka.Naf
H3671
an edge or extremity · noun, common feminine singular absolute
fowl
לְצִפּ֨וֹרle.tzi.Por
H6833
a little bird (as hopping) · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
beast
חַיַּ֣תchai.Yat
H2416
alive · noun, common feminine singular construct
field
הַשָּׂדֶ֗הha.sa.Deh
H7704
a field (as flat) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Assemble
הִקָּבְצ֤וּhi.ka.ve.Tzu
H6908
to grasp · verb, niphal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
come
וָבֹ֙אוּ֙va.Vo.'u
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
gather
הֵאָסְפ֣וּhe.'a.se.Fu
H622
to gather for any purpose · verb, niphal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
side
מִסָּבִ֔יבmi.sa.Viv
H5439
(as noun) a circle · preposition + noun, common both genders singular absolute
sacrifice
זִבְחִ֗יziv.Chi
H2077
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
sacrifice
זֹבֵ֤חַzo.Ve.ach
H2076
to slaughter an animal (usually in sacrifice) · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
great
גָּד֔וֹלga.Dol
H1419
great (in any sense) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
sacrifice
זֶ֣בַחZe.vach
H2077
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
mountains
הָרֵ֣יha.Rei
H2022
a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figurative… · noun, common masculine plural construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֑לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
eat
וַאֲכַלְתֶּ֥םva.'a.khal.Tem
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
flesh
בָּשָׂ֖רba.Sar
H1320
flesh (from its freshness) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
drink
וּשְׁתִ֥יתֶםu.she.Ti.tem
H8354
to imbibe (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
blood
דָּֽםDam
H1818
blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Total Destruction of Gog and his Hosts
Eze 39:9. Then will the inhabitants of the cities of Israel go forth, and burn and heat with armour and shield and target, with bow and arrows and hand-staves and spears, and will burn fire with them for seven years; Eze 39:10. And will not fetch wood from the field, nor cut wood out of the forests, but will burn fire with the armour, and will spoil those who spoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. Eze 39:11. And it will come to pass in that day, that I will give Gog a place where his grave in Israel shall be, the valley of the travellers, and there will they bury Gog and all his multitude, and will call it…
God would also provide his own disposal team of birds and wild animals, which he would gather for his great sacrificial feast.
Rashi on Ezekiel 39:16
And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah And also the city whose name is “the city stirring with numerous people,” that is, the wicked city, the masses of its inhabitants will be buried there.
Thus they shall purify the land [i.e.,] Israel will purify their ritually pure foods and their terumoth in the Land.
Hamonah without a “mappiq hey” since the final “hey” serves as an adjective, for הֲמוֹנָה is like הוֹמִיָה, stirring.
