Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 39:23–end
This is the conclusion of the whole matter going before, and has reference not only to the predictions concerning Gog and Magog, but to all the prophecies of this book concerning the captivity of the house of Israel, and then concerning their restoration and return out of their captivity.
I. God will let the heathen know the meaning of his people's troubles, and rectify the mistake of those concerning them who took occasion from the troubles of Israel to reproach the God of Israel, as unable to protect them and untrue to his covenant with them. When God, upon their reformation and return to him, turned again their captivity, and brought them back to their own land, and, upon their perseveran…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ezekiel 39:23
hid I my face-- (Deu 31:17; Isa 59:2).
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 39:19
And ye shall eat fat - and drink blood - Who shall eat and drink, etc.? Not the Jews: though Voltaire says they ate human flesh, and are invited here by the prophet to eat the flesh and drink the blood of their enemies; which is a most unprincipled falsehood. It is the fowls and the beasts that God invites, Eze 39:17 : "Speak to every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, assemble yourselves - that ye may eat flesh and drink blood;" nor are the persons altered in all these Eze 39:17-20 : so the assertion of Voltaire is either through brutish ignorance or Satanic malice.
John Gill on Ezekiel 39:24
According to their uncleanness,.... Not ceremonial, but moral; they were an impure and adulterous generation, as our Lord calls them, Matthew 12:39,
and according to their transgressions have I done unto them; or "rebellions", as the Targum renders it; or defections, as the word (k) signifies; their rebellions against the King Messiah; their defections from him; their contempt of him, and rejection of his yoke, and non-submission to his ordinances; according to the desert of such crimes, the Lord dealt with them;
"took vengeance on them,''
as the Targum is; in the destruction of their nation, city, and temple: "and hid my face from them"; or caused his Shechaniah to remove from them, as t…
