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The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Ezekiel 39:12

For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Burial;   The Topic Concordance - Israel/jews;   Last Days;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Burial;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Funeral;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Tabernacles, Feast of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Gog;   Thessalonians, Second Epistle to the;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Burial;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Gog and Magog;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Burial;   Cremation;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The house of Israel will spend seven months burying them in order to cleanse the land.
Hebrew Names Version
Seven months shall the house of Yisra'el be burying them, that they may cleanse the land.
King James Version
And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.
English Standard Version
For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land.
New American Standard Bible
"For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.
New Century Version
"‘The people of Israel will be burying them for seven months to make the land clean again.
Amplified Bible
"For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And seuen moneths long shall the house of Israel be burying of the, that they may clense the land.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.
Legacy Standard Bible
And for seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.
Contemporary English Version
The Israelites will spend seven months burying dead bodies and cleaning up their land.
Complete Jewish Bible
It will take the house of Isra'el seven months to bury them, in order to cleanse the land.
Darby Translation
And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land;
Easy-to-Read Version
It will take seven months for the family of Israel to bury them. They must do this to make the land pure.
George Lamsa Translation
And for seven months the house of Israel shall be busy burying them; and then the land shall be cleansed.
Good News Translation
It will take the Israelites seven months to bury all the corpses and make the land clean again.
Lexham English Bible
And the house of Israel will bury them for seven months to cleanse the land.
Literal Translation
And the house of Israel shall bury them, in order to cleanse the land, seven months.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Seuen monethes longe shall the house of Israel be burienge of them, that they maye clense the lode:
American Standard Version
And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land.
Bible in Basic English
And the children of Israel will be seven months putting them in the earth, so as to make the land clean.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land.
King James Version (1611)
And seuen moneths shall the house of Israel bee burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Seuen monethes long shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the lande.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the house of Israel shall bury them, that the land may be cleansed in the space of seven months.
English Revised Version
And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.
World English Bible
Seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And the hous of Israel schulen birie hem, that thei clense the lond in seuene monethis.
Update Bible Version
And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land.
Webster's Bible Translation
And seven months shall the house of Israel be in burying them, that they may cleanse the land.
New English Translation
For seven months Israel will bury them, in order to cleanse the land.
New King James Version
For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land.
New Living Translation
It will take seven months for the people of Israel to bury the bodies and cleanse the land.
New Life Bible
It will take the people of Israel seven months to bury the dead and make the land clean again.
New Revised Standard
Seven months the house of Israel shall spend burying them, in order to cleanse the land.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So shall the house of Israel bury them hat they may cleanse the land, - seven months;
Douay-Rheims Bible
And the house of Israel shall bury them for seven months to cleanse the land.
Revised Standard Version
For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land.
Young's Literal Translation
And the house of Israel have buried them -- in order to cleanse the land -- seven months.
THE MESSAGE
"Israel will bury the corpses in order to clean up the land. It will take them seven months. All the people will turn out to help with the burials. It will be a big day for the people when it's all done and I'm given my due. Men will be hired full-time for the cleanup burial operation and will go through the country looking for defiling, decomposing corpses. At the end of seven months, there'll be an all-out final search. Anyone who sees a bone will mark the place with a stick so the buriers can get it and bury it in the mass burial site, Gog's Mob. (A town nearby is called Mobville, or Hamonah.) That's how they'll clean up the land.

Contextual Overview

8Yes, it is coming, and it will surely happen, declares the Lord GOD. This is the day of which I have spoken. 9Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out, kindle fires, and burn the weapons-the bucklers and shields, the bows and arrows, the clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel. 10They will not gather wood from the countryside or cut it from the forests, for they will use the weapons for fuel. They will loot those who looted them and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord GOD. 11And on that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the Sea. It will block those who travel through, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog. 12For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.13All the people of the land will bury them and will be renowned for it on the day I display My glory, declares the Lord GOD. 14And men will be employed to continually pass through the land to cleanse it by burying the invaders who remain on the ground. At the end of the seven months they will begin their search. 15As they pass through the land, anyone who sees a human bone will set up a pillar next to it, until the gravediggers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog. 16(Even the city will be named Hamonah.) And so they will cleanse the land.' 17And as for you, son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: Call out to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field: 'Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great feast on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

cleanse: Ezekiel 39:14, Ezekiel 39:16, Numbers 19:16, Deuteronomy 21:23

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 23:14 - the bones of men Joel 2:20 - his stink

Cross-References

Genesis 39:8
But he refused. "Look," he said to his master's wife, "with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has entrusted everything he owns to my care.
Genesis 39:10
Although Potiphar's wife spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or be with her.
Genesis 39:13
When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house,
1 Samuel 15:27
As Samuel turned to go, Saul grabbed the hem of his robe, and it tore.
Proverbs 1:15
my son, do not walk the road with them or set foot upon their path.
Proverbs 5:8
Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
Proverbs 6:5
Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the fowler's snare.
Ecclesiastes 7:26
And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be ensnared.
1 Corinthians 15:33
Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good character."
2 Timothy 2:22
Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them,.... So long time will the burial of Gog's army take up, because of the multitude of it, and by reason their bones will be scattered here and there; which will require time to gather them together, and bring them to one place: the reason of the burial of them will be, partly out of humanity, which the Christian religion, which will then be embraced by the Jews, teaches and encourages; and partly because of the disagreeable sight and ill smell of the carcasses of the slain, and to prevent the air being infected therewith, which might cause noxious diseases. Jarchi gives the reason of it, because Gog is of the seed of Japheth, who covered his father's nakedness, and therefore worthy of a funeral: but a better reason follows,

that they may cleanse the land: not from ceremonial uncleanness, a place being unclean, by the ceremonial law, where dead carcasses, or the bones of dead men, lay; for the ceremonial law, as it is abrogated, will now be disused by the Jews themselves, when converted; but from natural pollution, before mentioned.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ezekiel 39:12. And seven months — It shall require a long time to bury the dead. This is another figurative expression; which, however, may admit of a good deal of literal meaning. Many of the Syrian soldiers had secreted themselves in different places during the pursuit after the battle, where they died of their wounds, of hunger, and of fatigue; so that they were not all found and buried till seven months after the defeat of the Syrian army. This slow process of burying is distinctly related in the three following verses, and extended even to a bone, Ezekiel 39:15; which, when it was found by a passenger, the place was marked, that the buriers might see and inter it. Seven months was little time enough for all this work; and in that country putrescency does not easily take place: the scorching winds serving to desiccate the flesh, and preserve it from decomposition.


 
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